The battle for Liverpool’s most marginal electoral seat got dirty yesterday as the Labour Party attempted to question the business dealings of the Lib-Dem’s Wavertree candidate Colin Eldridge as Marc Waddington and Rob Merrick report

THE battle for the Wavertree Parliamentary seat has reached fever pitch as campaigners from all sides enter their final 48-hour push for victory.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg made his second and final visit to the key Liverpool marginal yesterday.

But he was forced to use the occasion to stave off criticism of his candidate Colin Eldridge, whose campaign has been rocked by revelations his former business collapsed owing the taxpayer £80,000.

Mr Clegg and his supporters were in jovial mood as they took part in a question and answer session at Wavertree’s Frontline Church.

But the leader’s arrival was disrupted by Labour and Conservative campaigners, who waved their respective banners and placards as Clegg made his way past the waiting TV cameras.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Post, Nick Clegg gave an emphatic “yes” when asked if the Lib-Dems were about to snatch the seat from Labour. But the Labour campaign said the party was fighting hard and the vote was firming up.

Last night, rumours continued to abound that Gordon Brown may make an appearance in support of the Labour campaign.

Mr Clegg said: “It’s a classic constituency, which Labour feel they have a birthright to represent in Parliament.

“But they (the constituencies) don’t belong to the Labour party – they belong to the families in those communities.

“People want the fairness that Labour used to promise but has failed to deliver, and they know they are not going to get that from the Conservatives.

“It’s quite a wrench for people, who may have been voting Labour for generations, but they feel betrayed by Labour and they are happy that, in the Liberal Democrats, they have a real alternative.”

At the Frontline Church event, Mr Clegg took questions on immigration, health, the war in Afghanistan and the environment.

But the waiting press pack was keen to draw Mr Clegg on questions about the collapse of Cllr Eldridge’s former dry cleaning business which failed owing £80,000 to the taxman. The Wash and Press Centre owed £79,009 to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs just three weeks after he stood down as a director.

The Daily Post has seen documents showing that Cllr Eldridge did indeed sell the business in a private deal with his former girlfriend and business partner Christine Doyle before it was liquidated, as he claims.