Labour big guns target Yorkshire key seats

Yorkshire MPs Ed Balls, his wife Yvette Cooper and Rosie Winterton all hit the campaign trail with the message to voters not to gamble on David Cameron.

The move came after a Tory onslaught that saw Mr Cameron launch his party's campaign in Leeds on the opening day, swiftly followed by Richmond MP and Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling and Shadow Chancellor George Osborne.

They all brought the message that Gordon Brown's plans for a National Insurance increase would be a tax on jobs and kill the recovery. Yesterday Labour's troops warned voters that the Tories had got their figures wrong and their proposals could send the country into a second recession.

Sources within the campaign team said they were launching a major offensive this weekend and expect to speak with thousands of people.

The Labour Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and MP for Leeds Central, Hilary Benn, said: "What voters decide in Yorkshire will be really important in this General Election.

"Labour will be fighting hard in every seat. We have a really strong team of candidates who are campaigning for a fairer Britain. People are realising that we can't put the recovery at risk with a Tory government."

Pontefract and Castleford MP Ms Cooper spoke to the staff at the Chrysalis Youth and Community Project in Castleford.

She met young people being helped by the Future Jobs Fund, which she claimed would be at risk under a Tory government.

Her husband Mr Balls, the Children's Secretary and Normanton MP, is contesting the new Morley and Outwood seat and went to a community centre to meet staff and local residents before travelling to Pudsey to campaign with the prospective candidate Jamie Hanley.

Rosie Winterton, Minister for Yorkshire, joined Mary Creagh MP and Peter Box, leader of Wakefield Council, visiting the Merchant Gate regeneration project in the city.

Ms Winterton said the 140m scheme to create a new urban quarter illustrated how Labour was helping to keep the Yorkshire economy moving.

The Tories were still out in force, as Shadow Secretary of State David Willetts joined candidates Jason McCartney and Janice Small in the key target seats of Colne Valley and Batley and Spen.

Mr Willetts went to David Brown's Gear Academy in Huddersfield and met young trainees and apprentices along with directors and staff at the firm.

During a visit to a kindergarten later, he announced the Tories would consider scrapping the early years curriculum.