Glenrothes by-election: Brown meets voters at local café

GORDON Brown today paid his first by-election campaign visit to Glenrothes as Prime Minister.

The PM made a brief visit to the Fife town in carefully-controlled circumstances.

For 20 minutes Mr Brown talked to three families in a café in the town and aides said he planned to return to the campaign next week.

Mr Brown, who was accompanied by his wife, Sarah, met the families in a café in a car service centre next door to the Labour campaign headquarters on an industrial estate.

The conversation ranged over the economy to the health service and local increases in the cost of home helps, and Mr Brown took occasional swipes at the SNP in the course of it.

Mr Brown later denied the visit was a sign of Labour desperation at holding the seat, where they are defending a majority of 10,664 over the SNP.

"I was here a few weeks ago," he said in a round of TV interviews later.

"I wanted to come and explain to people what we are doing in this global financial crisis to make sure people are properly protected.

"We are doing more to help homeowners, we are doing more to help pensioners with their fuel bills by raising the winter allowance.

"We are doing more to help people that have had problems with their jobs by trying to make vacancies available for people looking for work."

He went on: "I am trying to explain also that we are dealing with a global financial crisis that has hit the Scottish banks.

"It started in America but it has hit all countries and we are leading the world in taking action to sort it out."

He denied that he had failed to prepare for bad times when he proclaimed the end of boom and bust.

"Everybody knows this is a global financial problem that started in America then affected the whole of the system," said Mr Brown.

There had been "irresponsible and undisclosed" lending by financial institutions, and assets that proved worthless were sold on to the rest of the world.

"We have got to deal with that problem – a problem we did not know about that started in America but a problem we have to deal with," he said.

"I think people will look at the action we have taken which has led the world."

And Mr Brown insisted: "We are taking the right decisions and the long-term decisions that are necessary.

"We have gone against the advice of some of the other parties but have done the right things." Mr Brown said there had been 10 years of good economic growth.

"Because of the work we have done over these last 10 years we are better prepared to deal with what is a world financial problem that's hitting every country."

Mr Brown said Britain had low interest rates, low national debt, and firms outside the financial sector were in a stronger position than 15 years ago.

"We are taking the action necessary because we are building on some of the strongest foundations that have been created over the last 10 years, he said."

Mr Brown sat with candidate Lindsay Roy at a table at Cormack's Café, where they chatted with six people who Labour had said had expressed an interest in meeting the Prime Minister.

They were council gardener Donald Young, 38, his wife Rona, 36, a nurse, their son Haydn, four, and daughter Iona, 13 months, from Buckhaven, Fife.

Also there were company director Brian Lumsden 57, and his wife Shona, 47. a secretary, from Beechwood, Glenrothes, and pensioner couple Jim Wright, a former bus driver, 72, and his wife Violet, 66, a former nurse, from Leven, Fife.

All said they were not Labour party members but had supported the party in the past, except for Mr Wright who voted SNP last time but said he was unhappy with the way the council had responded to a food poisoning issue.

After Mr Brown left, all said they planned to vote Labour, as they had in the past.

The conversation began with the Youngs on the health service and home help charges, an issue which has featured prominently in the campaign where the SNP candidate, Peter Grant, is the leader of Fife Council.

"We are going to have to do something about this," said Mr Brown.

"This is the local council making decisions to increase charges in some cases by 400%."

Mr Brown talked to the Youngs about their children, and was told their son was being treated for a rare kidney disease.

When he talked to the Lumsdens, the economy loomed large.

Mr Brown spoke of the government's £37 billion rescue package for banks which include the Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS.

And the rescue, he said, was not being carried out at the expense of the health or education services.

Mr Brown ducked the chance of discussing the SNP's plans for a local income tax.

When Mr Roy mentioned this, Mr Brown said: "I don't think perhaps this is the time..." and went on: "What everybody wants at the moment is everybody to come together and get through this fairly.

"They want people to work together.

"When we rescued the banks it wasn't Scotland-versus-England or England-versus-Scotland.

"We had the strength of the United Kingdom behind us."