Home Secretary Theresa May has become the latest political VIP to head for Kent on the campaign trail as polls continue to show that there is no clear frontrunner in the battle for votes.

Ms May travelled to Ramsgate to support the Conservative candidate Craig Mackinlay and to unveil the party’s new mobile advertising campaign.

She warned that undecided voters risked letting in Labour if they chose to back Ukip.

And she denied that the coalition’s failure to hit immigration targets meant Ukip was outflanking them on a key issue in Kent.

Asked what her message would be to floating undecided voters, she said: "Well, my message is that the last five years have been tough, some difficult decisions have had to be taken but we are seeing a growing economy and we need that strong economy to provide public services that people rely on.

"So don’t throw it all away on May 7 – the job is not yet done, give us that five years to finish that job."

On Manston, she said: "I know the importance of Manston. The whole question of airports is being looked at and there is a report due after the election.

"What I will say is that at senior levels, we recognise the importance of Manston airport to this part of Kent."

She rejected the suggestion that the party was vulnerable on the issue of immigration, saying that despite failing to meet targets, the Conservatives were best placed to deal with the challenge.

She continued: "We recognise that immigration does need to be controlled and it does have an impact on services, on jobs and wages at the lower end of the income scale.

"We need to do more to control migration from within the EU and we have set out very clearly what we would do there in terms of restrictions on the benefit system for example."

Earlier, Mrs May had stopped off at Hoo in Medway to lend her support to Conservative candidate Kelly Tolhurst, who is fighting to try and recapture the Rochester and Strood seat from Ukip's Mark Reckless.

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