Brown visit Yeadon pensioner in her home (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Brown visit Yeadon pensioner in her home

5:26pm Wednesday 14th April 2010 in

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Gordon Brown has insisted that Labour’s promises on NHS treatment were “on the ballot paper” at this General Election as he sought to emphasise his dividing lines with the Tories on public services.

Visiting Yeadon Health Centre yesterday, the Prime Minister tried to take on David Cameron over the “risk” the Conservative leader posed to the NHS, schools and policing.

Talking about Labour’s pledges on access to GPs and getting cancer test results within a week, Mr Brown said: “The guarantees for the health service are an issue.

“They are going to be on the ballot paper, because we want to continue these guarantees, we want to step them up during the next Parliament.

“It’s the way the health service shows it’s individually helping the patient and it’s a guarantee that can be enforced.”

Gordon Brown yesterday paid a surprise visit to an 82-year-old Labour supporter in her home.

On a visit to Yeadon Health Centre, Alice Thompson’s doctor had told the Prime Minister she had wanted to meet him there but was not able to leave her home, a short distance away.

Accompanied by his wife Sarah, the premier instead strolled up the path and knocked on the front door of her bungalow to be invited inside by the beaming pensioner (pictured from the back talking to the PM).

“How wonderful to see you,” she said. “I am so proud to meet you. I shall spread the word for you, don’t you worry.”

She told Mr Brown how she had been a dancer for the troops during the Second World War and had won medals.

The Prime Minister said he was “proud” to meet her, too, adding: “We were down at the health centre and they said you were here and we should come and see you, and I thought what a great idea.”

After a ten-minute chat in the pensioner’s living room, Mr Brown was introduced to her neighbours Edith and Alan Imrie, both also in their 80s.

They came to their door to meet the Prime Minister, with Mr Imrie telling him: “I hope you are successful. It’s a privilege to meet you.”

While unplanned, the visit tied in with the Prime Minister’s “word of mouth” strategy for the election, concentrating on small, intimate chats with voters in battleground areas.