Gordon Brown heads to the seaside to 'shore' up his vote

Gordon Brown made a whistle stop tour of Labour marginal seats in the region yesterday as he battled to shore up his core vote ahead of polling day on Thursday amid growing signs that the Conservatives are finally gaining the upper hand.

The prime minister, who is facing an uphill task to stay in Downing Street as opinion polls continue to show Labour trailing in third place, stopped off at Waveney and Great Yarmouth - two constituencies he must hold if he is to stand any chance of staying in power.

Labour chiefs yesterday tore up the script with a series of hastily rearranged visits by Mr Brown to the area, briefing journalists that the election would be decided in around 100 Conservative-Labour marginals.

Mr Brown and his wife Sarah, arrived in Lowestoft just after 1pm with Dragon's Den star Duncan Bannatyne his newly appointed 'seaside tsar', meeting activists and Labour's Waveney candidate Bob Blizzard at the Bascule bridge.

The Labour leader revealed that he had asked business secretary Lord Mandelson to draw up plans to help hundreds of SLP workers facing uncertainty as administrators try and find a buyer for the stricken engineering firm.

And he said the government stood ready to fund a third river crossing in Lowestoft - once Suffolk County Council was willing to commit to the project as a regional priority - and would support a similar scheme in Great Yarmouth.

After around 20 minutes, he then dashed to Great Yarmouth to join candidate Tony Wright, and communities secretary John Denham, as part of the launch of Labour's seaside manifesto.

Both towns are pivotal to Labour's chances on Thursday, yet according to the Ipsos Mori poll the two parties are now level-pegging on 36pc in marginal seats, whereas last week Labour led by 38pc to 35pc.

That suggested David Cameron was on track to secure a slender majority of two seats in the General Election because the party was performing strongly enough in marginal constituencies to creep over the victory line.

It is the first time in weeks that a survey has put Mr Cameron on course for an overall majority - albeit of just two seats.

Ipsos Mori questioned voters in 57 Labour-held constituencies where the Tories need a swing of between 5pc and 9pc to win - enough to win in both coastal towns.

The finding would represent a 7pc swing to the Conservatives compared to the last general election in 2005, which could equate to an overall majority of two.

Mr Brown insisted he was still fighting hard to win 'every second, every minute, every hour, in the wind in the rain, and in the sun, every day and in every way' to win the election.

'People do look at their local MPs and ask what have they done for the area,' Mr Brown said. 'You can see what's happened. There has been regeneration and there's been more investment. It's one example of how we have moved things forward.'

And he said the two coastal areas could both benefit by the boom in offshore energy and he could see 'jobs coming in, in the future'.

'We want to help, we are dealing with a great economic opportunity in this area,' Mr Brown added.

But there was no stop off in either of the two Norwich seats by the prime minister, whose relations with Norwich South challenger Charles Clarke are notoriously poor - despite Labour facing a strong challenge to keep the seat from the Lib Dems buoyed by the surge in support for leader Nick Clegg.

Neither did Mr Brown head to Norwich North, which Labour lost to the Tories in a by-election last year, despite some suggestions the contest could be a lot closer this time.