THE Labour Party says it can take Wycombe from the Conservatives at the general election on Thursday.

The fact that the government has sent in one minister to the constituency to rally the troops along and is sending another on Tuesday means Labour headquarters, Millbank, thinks the seat could fall.

If that happens and part of the parliamentary map of Buckinghamshire turns red, Chauhdry Shafique will be Wycombe's man at Westminster, not Paul Goodman, the new Tory candidate hoping to take over from Sir Ray Whitney.

Sir Ray had a majority of 2,370 in 1997, but it was more than 14,000 down on 1992 and there was a swing to Labour from the Conservatives of 13.6 per cent.

Tories pooh-pooh talk of a Labour victory. Their canvass returns are showing the Tory vote holding up and that Labour supporters are deserting the party for either the Lib Dems or to a lesser extent the Conservatives, while others are saying they will not bother to vote.

They say the vote will be something like as good as it was in the district council elections in 1999, when the Tories regained Wycombe District Council with a thumping majority.

Margaret Hodge, minister for disabled people, paid a flying visit to the town on Wednesday and met Labour supporter Margaret Saunders, who lives at a home for people with mental health problems and learning disabilities, in West Wycombe Road.

Mrs Hodge also visited Wycombe Arts Centre with Labour county council candidate Julia Wassell who is fighting to re-open the centre which shut yesterday. The minister also met centre users as well as Mr Shafique and four of the five strong Labour contingent on Buckinghamshire County Council, who are all seeking election on Thursday.

Mrs Hodge, MP for Barking, east London, is one of the key team of campaigning ministers sent to key Tory marginals in the past couple of weeks.

She told the Free Press it had become clear to Millbank from the canvass return from Wycombe that the party had a good chance of winning.

She said the Prime Minister spoke for people like those who lived in High Wycombe.

She enjoys campaigning, which is just as well because she has been to about 30 targeted sets in the last two weeks including three on Wednesday.

Mr Shafique said the party had been saying locally since September that the seat was winnable and district councillor Clare Martens said last time lots of people had voted Lib Dem because they thought they were the best option to oust the Tories, but were now shifting back.

Geoff Nagle, agent for Lib Dem Wycombe candidate Dee Tomlin, says she can win. Last time the Lib Dems came third because everyone voted Labour to try and get rid of the Conservatives, he said. This time people do not want the Tories but they do not want Labour either, he added.

In a statement Wycombe Conservative Association said: "We have been canvassing door to door and the Labour party has not been canvassing door to door. Therefore we are closer in touch than they are about what voters in the area are saying and doing. We are finding much the same results on the doorstep as in the district council elections in 1999, when we had an overwhelming majority."