General election: SNP confronts Labour big beast in his den

By some accounts Gordon Brown helped save the global financial system and by others he saved the unity of the UK - but he certainly could not save the local supermarket.

Despite high-profile appeals from the former UK prime minister and Labour leader, the Tesco store in central Kirkcaldy at the heart of his home constituency closed its doors last month.

Now Mr Brown, who retired as MP at the end of the last parliament, faces a much greater humiliation - the potential loss to the Scottish National party of the once rock-solid Labour seat of Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath.

"The campaign is going wonderfully well," says an ebullient Roger Mullin, the SNP candidate.

The SNP has more activists working doorsteps and street corners in this election than ever - and far more than any other party can muster, Mr Mullin boasts after a visit to the constituency by party leader Nicola Sturgeon.

The challenge to Mr Brown by Scotland's first minister in the Labour big beast's own political den this week highlights a huge shift in support towards the SNP, which polls suggest is on course to win all but a handful of Scotland's 59 Westminster seats.

A poll published by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft last month put the SNP 6 percentage points ahead in Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath, where Mr Brown won by a hefty 50 points in 2010. Bookies put Labour and the SNP neck and neck.

It is easy to find disillusioned former Labour voters in Kirkcaldy, which to the surprise of some visiting journalists is properly pronounced "kirk-caw-day". 

Many traditional Labour supporters are still angry at the party's co-operation with the widely unpopular Conservatives to oppose independence. Some are particularly upset by Mr Brown's high-profile late intervention in the campaign - credited by some commentators as a pivotal moment in the No victory.

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Mr Wheatley voted Yes to independence in last year's referendum, but even his wife Elizabeth, who voted No, says she might also back the Nationalists.

For the Wheatleys, the main appeal of the SNP is the hope of change to UK politics and for a strong Scottish voice in Westminster, not any hankering for a referendum re-run. "We've had our chance at independence. That ship has sailed," Mr Wheatley says.

Yet Labour stalwarts point out that Mr Brown still has lots of fans in his former fiefdom. He has already made a number of campaign appearances there and is expected to step up his efforts when he returns from a visit to Washington this week.

"I like Gordon Brown. I think he's a good man, an honest man and a good leader and I don't think he gets the credit he deserves," says Renna Hutton, a constituent visiting the post office, which now operates in the otherwise empty shell of the old Tesco store.

Local supporters say a hostile UK media overlooks Mr Brown's achievements in office, including decisive action to limit the damage of the 2008 global financial crisis.

Kenny Selbie, the local councillor who is Labour's candidate to succeed Mr Brown as MP, believes the former PM has strong appeal in the area. "I'm delighted to have him campaigning beside me," he said.

Mr Selbie also argues that many voters remain undecided and at least some former supporters who voted for independence can be brought back into the Labour fold. "We are getting a good response on the doorsteps and we have a galvanised local membership," he says.

But the SNP candidate believes Mr Brown is more liability than asset to Labour in his own constituency. "Every time he speaks he seems to annoy people," Mr Mullin said.

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