This General Election campaign has thrown up all manner of surprises none more so than today, when former Prime Minister Tony Blair joined the battle in Bury.

Looking tanned and a lot trimmer than I expected, Mr Blair still has the air of a statesman about so it should have been no surprise at all that his old "buddie" Gordon Brown called on him to give him a final push before Thursday's election.

While there is no doubting he is a lot more comfortable around the general public than Brown, he and the current incumbent do share a steady determination and a belief that what the Labour party is doing is right.

Blair, on a visit to a Sure Start Centre in Bury, was certain that Brown was still the right man to lead the economic recovery and, even though he has only been called onto the campaign trail at the 11th hour, he said he would be doing his best to get that message across.

All in that strange North East/mid-Atlantic drawl he seems to have picked up somewhere along the way.

All a bit surreal but another picture to add to the ever-growing collection down at my dear old gran's house.

I also had the chance to chat with deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman and the Conservatives shadow home secretary Chris Grayling, who - in some weird Brown-in-Rochdale-but-in-reverse kind of moment - surprised me by being able to hear my conversation with local Tory leader Cllr John Walsh as the pair drove into Bolton.

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