AT LONGHOLME Methodist Church in Rawtenstall, more than 200 people are drinking tea and talking politics. It is the interval at a hustings debate between the three main candidates.

“I will definitely vote. I always do. But I am finding it really difficult this year,” says a man in his 30s.

“The problem is I don’t want Janet but I don’t want the other guy,” his friend adds.

The bumper turnout at the debate – it had to be moved upstairs to accommodate all 221 people – shows how seriously voters are taking this tight battle between Labour and the Conservatives.

Mrs Anderson is the longest serving MP in the constituency’s 27-year history. Her majority leapt to 11,000 in 1997, but has decreased to 3,752.

But after the national leaders’ televised debates, the bookmakers made the Conservatives the 2/9 favourite to win here. It is now ranked 71 on the Tories’ target list and they are going on the attack.

They have cited Mrs Anderson’s mileage claims which have been among the highest in Parliament, although she points to the amount of driving needed to cover the large, rural constituency – it is an oddly-shaped constituency, where it is impossible to drive from Rossendale and Darwen without crossing Parliamentary boundaries.

But the debate in the Grade Two-listed church auditorium area, was dominated by other issues.

Candidates were first asked how they would protect jobs. Mrs Anderson cited the minimum wage and working tax credits while Mr Berry attacked Labour’s planned National Insurance rise.

All the candidates agreed on the need for a direct rail link with Manchester, and the issue that raises the audience the most is NHS services, including the closure of the maternity unit at Fairfield Hospital, meaning a trip to Bolton for many parents.

Mr Berry brands the valley an ‘A&E blackspot’, but his Labour rival points to Rawtenstall’s new £12million health hub, one of the first of its kind in the North West.

In a seat that contains both affluent rural areas and some of the most deprived housing in East Lancashire, the the Conservatives have key pockets of support in Whitworth, Edenfield and parts of rural Darwen, while Labour is strongest in Rawtenstall and urban Darwen.

Other candidates include two men well known in the Darwen half of the constituency.

Tony Melia, the deputy leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, who is standing for the Impact Party, a collection of independents with a tough line on immigration, and English Democrat Michael Johnson, who has also stood the England First and For Darwen parties.

The Lancashire Telegraph revealed earlier this year that Mrs Anderson had claimed expenses for a barely-used office owned by the Labour Party that was not open to the public for 16 years.

“The whole expenses affair has left a disillusionment with Parliament generally,” she admitted, but said it was not being raised on the doorstep.

“I was quite worried at the start about what people’s reaction would be,” she said.

Mrs Anderson also spoke out last year against Prime Minister Gordon Brown, calling for a leadership election, but now said she was campaigning on his record.

During his campaign Mr Berry, a 31-year-old Liverpool-born solicitor who was installed as candidate in 2007, has tried to attack his Labour rival by linking her to the Prime Minister and the expenses scandal, claiming the big issue at the election will be ‘trust in politics’.

The Lib Dems were hit by the withdrawal of their candidate, Dale Mulgrew, before the Nick Clegg-inspired poll bounce, because he wanted to concentrate on his role with Rochdale Council.

At Longholme Methodist Church his replacement, former RAF man Bob Sheffield, struggles with the detail of his party’s manifesto and is rewarded with applause when he promises to ‘read up on it in time for the next debate’.

But there is no clear winner between the Tory and Labour rivals after the two-hour debate.