Troubles come in threes for Labour as it struggles to hold Burnley

Labour is seriously up against it in Burnley , once a fortress built on the world's largest concentration of cotton mills surrounded by pits and glorying in a legendary working men's club. The florid building still thrives and still imports more Bénédictine liqueur than anywhere else in Britain, thanks to a taste acquired by the Lancashire Fusiliers in the first world war. But there is precious little other Grand Old Labourism left. Compounding that, the constituency's outgoing MP, Kitty Ussher , went from golden girl with a junior ministry to an item on the third day of the Daily Telegraph's expenses exposure. The paper quoted from a letter in which she asked the Commons fees office whether MPs' additional costs allowance could pay for, among other things, plastering over a "bad taste" Artex ceiling at her London home. Troubles come in threes, and the third is an assault by Liberal Democrats of the rough, tough Pennine variety, who in the past captured Colne Valley, Rochdale and council seats all over the Yorkshire/Lancashire hills. They've manned a sort of Fusiliers-style redoubt outside the central markets for 86 weeks now, not in the style of the Big Issue in the North seller who touts for custom nearby, but just standing waiting for suggestions, problems and complaints. These come in droves, some to the pair of local councillors who turn up by rota, but most to the council leader and Lib Dem candidate, Gordon Birtwistle , who is almost always there, 9.30am-1pm twice a week. A big man with a presence (but not waistline) reminiscent of Rochdale's Cyril Smith , he has perfected the traditional Liberal method of intensive local concern. Two women crossing over from Labour sign his 25,000-strong petition against the closure of Burnley hospital's A&E and, come October possibly, children's ward, partly because of a shopping service he laid on for their sheltered housing complex. Lib Dem volunteers ran relays to the local supermarket during the winter ice and snow. "I had one resident look at half-a-dozen eggs I got her and say: 'I can't be doing with those,'" said Birtwistle. "I said: 'Why? What's wrong?" and she said: 'I always get the ones with Omega 3.' I thought she was going to send me back but she relented and said: 'I'll make do this time.' I'd have gone, though." The next signatory, teaching assistant and single mother Emma Burrows, was accompanied by Birtwistle to a series of appeals in Burnley and Preston when her four-year-old failed to get into the nearest primary. These examples of micro-politics go with a tough line against an older threat to Labour's core vote, the BNP, whose success in Burnley eight years ago gave the town national notoriety. It has been the Liberal Democrats who have led the counter-charge, winning back seats and confident of knocking out the "BNP TV" organiser Derek Dawson, the last survivor in Gannow ward, this time. Vincent Cable and now Nick Clegg's success on proper TV have meanwhile done their bit for Birtwistle in national terms, leaving Labour's defender, Julie Cooper looking at alarmingly stacked cards. Her response is to play things straight and rally a loyalist vote, which will still be considerable whatever happens, by stating things as they are. "It isn't easy to be defending a Labour seat in these difficult times," she says. "We've been in power nationally for 13 years, there's been the recession and we're on the back of an expenses scandal." She doesn't talk down the threat from Birtwistle either, by playing up the strength of the BNP or the Conservatives, who came fourth behind an ex-Labour independent last time. "It's between myself and the Liberal Democrats," she says, "but I'm ready for it. I was elected to Burnley council well after New Labour's honeymoon period. I'm honest, effective and local. My granddad worked down Hapton pit [where an explosion killed 19 miners in 1962] and a lot of my family were in weaving. I grew up knowing what the inside of a weaving shed looks like." The grit goes with a more New Labour side, raising two children – now in their early 20s and independent enough to allow her to contemplate Westminster (Ussher had two under-fours and blamed the strain of family when she announced her stepping-down last June). Cooper initially taught English in secondary schools and then joined her husband running their pharmacy. Jobs, she says, are what it is all about. "It has been very difficult for Burnley. Its original reason for being is no more," she says. "The government has to help us to turn round, and it has done. Evidence of Labour spending in Burnley is all around." She cites the £100m that has gone into the new university, and vocational links with advanced manufacturing. Future Burnleyites ought to be able to say their granddad worked in aerospace technology, and grew up knowing what the inside of a laboratory looks like. There is little to separate the two main contenders on these fundamentals, other than disputing credit and blame. Birtwistle argues that his council, rather than Cooper's government, fought for and obtained inward investment. Cooper counters that the hospital threat – the single issue mentioned most often by voters, by far – is the fault not of Labour but the devolved East Lancashire hospital trust. Bare-knuckle politics is probable. Ussher is a Lib Dem weapon; Labour retaliates with talk of Birtwistle's age, 67, and a past business failure. The margin either way could be decided by one of the other five candidates: possibly the Tories' Richard Ali or the BNP's Sharon Wilkinson, who won a Lancashire county council seat, her party's first, last May. The likelier wild card is Andrew Brown, one of Burnley's handful of wealthy local business entrepreneurs, who is fighting a well-funded campaign as an independent. He has picked up the "Burnley first" banner of the Labour renegade Harry Brooks, whose 15% of the vote in 2005 took third place. Birtwistle in particular is aware of the threat, with Brown playing the "someone different from the old parties" card, in the way that Clegg does nationally. Apathy seems unlikely, to the satisfaction of the election's official artist Simon Roberts , who lighted on the Lib Dems' stall on his national tour, commissioned by the House of Commons. Weary of staged events involving party bigwigs, he said: "It's great – politicians out there, integrating with the public, having to get out there and find every vote." Burnley should beat its 59.2% turnout last time. • This article was amended on 6 May 2010. The original said that voters had paid for the removal of an Artex ceiling in Kitty Ussher's London home. Kitty Ussher has written to us stating that no such claim was, in fact, submitted. This reference has been deleted from the story above. Burnley The constituency Pit and milltown in beautiful surroundings, reinventing itself as hi-tech industry centre with aerospace a particular strength. High burglary rate and streets of boarded-up homes after controversial Housing Market Renewal, but hopes of better rail links to match the M65 and lure Manchester commuters. Data Lib Dems need 7.4% swing to overturn Labour's 5,778 majority (14.8% of poll in 2005). BNP strong in satellite town of Padiham. No boundary changes. Outgoing MP Labour's Kitty Ussher, niece of top Tory couple Peter and Virginian Bottomley, and a London meteor who flashed and burned out after one term. History Venerable seat created 1868 and venerably Labour: the party has held it since 1931. But the Conservatives failed in 1983 by only 770 votes. Notable past MPs include Jabez Balfour, a Gladstonian Liberal swindler jailed for 14 years in 1896. • This data box was amended on 6 May 2010. The original spoke of hopes for better rail links to match the M56. This has been corrected.