Labour's campaign in the Glenrothes by-election would be helped if Gordon Brown visited the constituency, a minister said today.
Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy said the Prime Minister would bring "real benefit" to the campaign if he found it possible to attend.
Mr Murphy confirmed the contest will take place on
November 6 and said SNP plans for a local incom
e tax were the dominant local issue.
His comments on whether Mr Brown should attend go further than senior minister Douglas Alexander, who said on Saturday it was a matter for the Prime Minister whether to take part.
Mr Murphy told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland: "I think it would be a real benefit to Labour's campaign if the Prime Minister can attend, so we'll be talking about that."
He went on: "But I think most people in Glenrothes in truth would rather he was certain he was doing everything he could in the economic crisis.
"If he is able to do that and come to Glenrothes, I think he would be a great boost to our campaign, so I think it makes sense."
All parties have been campaigning in the constituency for some time, and Labour is not having a formal campaign launch.
Instead Mr Murphy, along with Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray, will go straight into campaign mode today in the Fife town.
The seat, where Labour is defending a majority of 10.664, fell vacant with the death of MP John MacDougall.
The November 6 date had been widely predicted and the SNP accused Mr Brown of trying to "bury" the poll in the publicity over the US elections, which will take place two days beforehand.
SNP MP Mike Weir said: "In Glasgow East Labour held a snap by-election hoping voters were on holiday, and now in Fife they are hoping to bury the by-election in the aftermath of the US presidential election."
The SNP is hoping for a repeat of its Glasgow East triumph, where it captured a nominally safe Labour seat in its Scottish industrial heartland.
In 2006 Labour suffered a spectacular humiliation in another corner of Mr Brown's political backyard, when the Liberal Democrats captured Dunfermline and West Fife – another nominally impregnable Labour seat – from his party.
Bookies have already made the SNP 1-4 favourites to win.
Labour is planning a big drive to encourage electors in Glenrothes to register for a postal vote.
Labour's candidate is Lindsay Roy, 59, a headteacher at Gordon Brown's old school, Kirkcaldy High School.
In what was viewed by his opponents as a gaffe, last month he said he would be "disappointed" if Mr Brown did not come to Glenrothes to campaign for him.
Labour plans to distribute 20,000 leaflets in the first 48 hours of the campaign.
The SNP candidate is Peter Grant, leader of Fife council.
The Tories and the Liberal Democrats are also in the contest and have also started campaigning.
Mr Murphy said Labour would take no-one for granted.
"I have stood in my constituency of East Renfrewshire on three occasions, and every pundit has said I will lose my seat," said Mr Murphy.
"I have won on each occasion because I don't take anyone for granted and I won't take anyone for granted in Glenrothes."
He claimed that local income tax was the biggest local issue.
"The fact is, in the constituency of course the overlay is the unprecedented economic situation," he said.
"But the specific local issue that is coming up very regularly is genuine worries at difficult times about increases in local income tax."
The full article contains 611 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
