LABOUR leader Ed Miliband said victory for his party in South Swindon was key if they wanted to return to power.

He was visiting campaigners at Los Gatos, in Old Town this afternoon, as well as lending support to Anne Snelgrove and Mark Dempsey, the party’s candidates in South and North Swindon respectively.

The polls are showing the battle between Mrs Snelgrove and the Conservative Robert Buckland is very tight, so Labour has set its sight on a victory.

The party leader is the latest in a number of high profile party members to come to Swindon, with comedian Eddie Izzard campaigning on Monday and Ed Balls making a major policy announcement last week.

And Mr Miliband said the number of visits showed how serious the party is at winning the seat at next month’s election.

He said: “Swindon’s incredibly important and I am very proud to be supporting Anne and Mark’s campaign in North and South Swindon.

“Anne will make a brilliant MP and they’re running a campaign which is based on rewarding hard working people, building a future for our young people and turning around our NHS so I’m proud to be here.

“I’d say to people in South Swindon that you have a key choice. You can have a Conservative government who think that wealth comes from the top down, or you can have a Labour government that is going to put working people first.”

With one month to the election, Mr Miliband is keen to get over to Swindon residents that his party will deliver for working people.

On top of that, Labour has also adopted a range of policies, such as reducing business rates, which will help small companies like those located in Wood Street, said Mr Miliband.

“We will raise the minimum wage and ban exploitative zero hour contracts which I know is important to people in Swindon,” he said.

“There is a big contrast in this election. Conservatives say everything is fixed but the reality is different.

"So many people say the recovery isn’t reaching me. It may have reached the city of London but it’s not reaching me.

“We are going to cut business rates for small and medium size businesses whereas the Conservatives want to cut corporation tax for big businesses.”

Mrs Snelgrove welcomed the visit from her leader and believes momentum is building behind her campaign.

She said: “This visit demonstrates how important Swindon is to the Labour Party. We have a number of high profile visits and now a leadership visit which is really great.

“The more people who can meet Ed Miliband then the more people can see he will make a strong Prime Minister so I’m delighted Swindon residents have had the opportunity to do that.”

Elsewhere, those who have not yet registered to vote are being reminded they have less than two weeks to do so.

The deadline is 5pm on April 20 and under the new system introduced last year, every person eligible is responsible for registering themselves.

The process takes a few minutes and can be found at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote or call 01793 464601.