Marginal voters in Stourbridge challenge Gordon Brown

By David Thompson
BBC Politics Show reporter

It is not an opportunity which knocks very often. The chance to tell the prime minister, to his face, exactly what he needs to do to win your support at the next general election.

Voters don't often get the chance to talk to the PM face to face

For 16 undecided voters from in and around one of the key marginal seats in the crucial battleground of the West Midlands, that is exactly what happened when Gordon Brown was invited to Stourbridge.

It is the constituency the Politics Show has adopted as its own in the run-up to the election. On one level, it is a seat which is representative of the whole country, whose issues tend to be reflected across the country.

On another, it is a knife-edge marginal, held by Labour with a majority of just 407. If the Conservatives do not take seats like Stourbridge, David Cameron will not be taking over vacant possession of 10 Downing Street.

Key battleground

As such, it is vital for Labour that Gordon Brown wins over those voters who have yet to make up their minds.

In our programme they told the prime minister precisely what they thought on issues ranging from the NHS to Afghanistan.

The exchanges were neither affectionate nor angry, but respectful.

And while the audience at King Edward VI Sixth Form College were willing to listen to Mr Brown's answers, they weren't afraid to come back at the prime minister if they felt he had failed to answer their question.

Events are going to overwhelm you and you're going to be swept away. James Sage Undecided voter

One audience member, Ann Probyn, lost her soldier son Daniel when he was killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in 2007.

She believes he was not properly equipped when he went out on patrol and asked Mr Brown directly: "Would you like your son to go out on night patrol with no equipment?"

In response, Mr Brown said the government was committed to giving British forces as much protection as possible, but said that if Mrs Probyn felt the Ministry of Defence should investigate her son's death further "it will be done".

The NHS will be one of the key battlegrounds in the coming election. Clinical psychologist Sally Austin told the prime minister: "I'm passionate about the NHS, but I'm getting tired …the sense of the staff working in the NHS is that we're, we're beginning to get grouchy."

Mr Brown said he was determined to cut red tape and to improve the NHS for both patients and staff. But asked whether clinical psychologists like Sally Austin were frontline staff - and therefore to be protected from any future budget cuts - he said that was for the local health authority to decide.

Passionate response

Although the audience was made up of undecided voters, a substantial number had voted Labour in the past.

But former supporters like James Sage did not pull their punches.

Mr Brown had to defend himself in the face of tough questioning

He recalled the "election that never was" back in 2007 and accused Mr Brown of being indecisive, adding for good measure: "Events are going to overwhelm you and you're going to be swept away.

"It looks like that you are going to be another Labour administration and someone like me who has supported the Labour party all my life are going to have the choice of voting for an Old Etonian again. I mean this is because you have allowed it to happen."

It was perhaps the most full-frontal attack on the prime minister, but it also brought the most passionate response.

Mr Brown said: "I'm here in politics not because I want celebrity, not because I want to be famous, not because I want money, not because I want anything to do with power for its own sake.

"I'm here because I want the jobs that you were talking about, I want the better health service that you wanted to talk about, I want to protect the victim that you were talking about, I want communities to be safe and I want people to feel that their potential is being realised.

"Now when I stop being able to do that job, I should stop being able to put myself forward as a candidate for anything."

In the coming weeks, the Politics Show will be bringing senior politicians from both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives to Stourbridge to meet floating voters. Did Gordon Brown win over any hearts and minds in this key marginal? We'll have to wait until polling day to find out.

• The BBC Politics Show is broadcast at 1415GMT on BBC1.