Both the Conservatives and Labour sent big-hitters to campaign in the district.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband was in Keighley yesterday while Tory Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague visited Ilkley.

Mr Miliband met shoppers at the Asda store in Bingley Road, Keighley, accompanied by the Labour candidate Jane Thomas.

Staff and shoppers challenged Mr Miliband on immigration, pay and creating more jobs.

He said: “I can’t determine how much you get paid but we have linked the minimum wage to earnings.

“We have developed the tax credits and rewarded people for going into work, which is a good thing.”

He said “people should vote for what they value” and “ignore the siren calls about a hung Parliament”.

He warned constituents against voting for the town’s Conservative candidate Kris Hopkins. He said: “The Tories will take people back to 1980. I have seen that time and I do not want to see it again.”

He also urged people to use their vote: “We haven’t got the right to vote by accident, it is because people have fought for it.”

Meanwhile, Mr Hague also urged voters to avoid a hung Parliament when he visited Ilkley town centre.

The former Conservative Party leader attracted a crowd of people of all ages when he visited the bandstand on The Grove, in support of the campaign of Mr Hopkins, the current Bradford Council leader.

He said: “A hung Parliament would just be a case of people haggling, and would result in another General Election. This country does not need another election.”

Mr Hague also made reference to Labour’s drop in the polls after Gordon Brown’s ‘bigot’ comment about a voter in Rochdale on Wednesday.

He joked that the Conservatives could have won support for their campaign by bringing the Labour leader to Ilkley.

He called in at the Oxfam shop on The Grove, greeted shoppers and discussed national issues with young voters.

* The other candidates in the Keighley constituency are Andrew Brons (BNP), Nader Fekri (Lib Dem), Paul Latham (UKIP) and Steven Smith (NF).