AS the General Election looms ever larger, MPs and Parliamentary candidates in marginal seats will be bidding for support from their party's big guns.

Blessed is he - or she - who attracts a high-profile frontbencher to their constituency as the election campaign hots up.

So don't be surprised if Tony and Cherie Blair's campaign trail includes a visit to Worcester.

Labour's seat in the city - taken from the Tories in the 1997 landslide - is far from safe and the party will be doing all it can to hang on.

Predictions that the turnout could be even lower than the historically poor showing of 59 per cent in 2001 are expected to hurt Labour votes most.

This, coupled with reports that pro-hunting campaigners will be surreptitiously motivating the anti-Mike Foster vote, is giving Labour strategists the willies.

A visit by the PM and his wife could be just the thing to rally the party faithful and remind all those new voters from 1997 - who are now beginning to waver - just why they turned to New Labour in the first place.

It will also be an opportunity to stress that the hunting ban was not the Government's doing but Labour backbenchers', and that Blair was actually in favour of a compromise.

On a lighter note, there are also whispers that Cherie is keen to visit Worcester as soon as possible to check out the city's new breed of community support officers.

CSOs have been, in turn, celebrated by the Government as a uniformed presence on the streets, and maligned by the Tories as "policing on the cheap".

But when Worcester CSO Lee Russell was introduced at a Downing Street reception for public workers on Monday evening, Mrs Blair was decidedly impressed.

Her opening remark: "Are they all this good looking in Worcester?" Perhaps she will get the chance to find out.

And what of the other party leaders? Michael Howard might be advised to drop by West Worcestershire, where the Liberal Democrats are officially "gunning" for Sir Michael Spicer.

Lib Dem candidate Tom Wells and his supporters were buoyed by a poll last weekend suggesting a narrow lead over the Tory grandee.

Labour are still holding back their choice of candidate for the constituency, which they appear to have all but given up hope of winning.

And Lord Rennard, the Lib Dems' election maestro, is hoping that natural

Labour supporters partake in a little tactical voting.

He said: "It is absolutely clear that Labour cannot win here and many Labour supporters will look at the facts and switch to the Lib Dems in this constituency.

"The Lib Dems will mount a very strong challenge to get the vital few extra votes needed for victory."

Party leader Charles Kennedy is also said to be "very impressed" with Councillor Wells and will be doing all he can to lever him in to Westminster.