Unfinished business is driving ex-Wolverhampton MP Rob Marris

The former Labour MP for Wolverhampton South West was beaten by Conservative Paul Uppal by a slender 691 votes at the last election.

It makes the constituency one of the key targets for Labour.

Former solicitor Mr Marris will have recently turned 60 if he wins and is the only previously defeated Labour MP in the Black Country trying for a comeback in May.

He spent nine years in Canada after winning a scholarship. Part of that time saw him working for the British Columbia Forest Service as a forest firefighter.

"Yes I did chop down trees in British Columbia, but no Monty Python Lumberjack Song jokes please," he said.

Since he lost his seat he decided not to return to the law and worked instead for the National Union of Teachers.

"I thought a long time about whether I wanted to stand again," he said. "But a lot of people asked me, which was very nice.

"I feel there is unfinished business. I believe in public service and Wolverhampton, where I was born and raised, has been very good to me. I want to help get the economy working much better."

He acknowledges that his candidacy poses the risk of reminding voters what they rejected in 2010, when Labour was turfed out of office. He said: "The Labour government made mistakes.

"It ran a deficit when times were good. I told them at the time that should not have done that."

Mr Marris will not be seeking a ministerial role if he is elected again, but does not rule out accepting one. He added: "I was always a pest for Wolverhampton.

"I believe in the role of MPs as a safety valve. People who write to secretaries of state directly rarely get a personal reply. But MPs do."

For a seat with everything to play for, and so crucial to both the main parties in their aims of securing a majority, both Mr Marris and the Conservative incumbent are kind about each other.

Mr Uppal has previously paid tribute to his predecessor and opponent while Mr Marris acknowledges the work he has done in trying to win funding to replace Wolverhampton's eyesore rail station.

Mr Marris believes he brings real world experience, but crucially none of his opponents of any party are career politicians.

All of them have worked – from Mr Uppal as a property developer, to the UKIP candidate Dave Everett as a small businessman, as well the Greens' Andrea Cantrill and Lib Dem Neale Upstone, all of whom have jobs outside of politics.

Yesterday saw Labour leader Ed Miliband face David Cameron in the Commons for the final Prime Minister's Questions before the election campaign begins in earnest next week.

Despite reports that Mr Miliband is the weak link in Labour's campaign, Mr Marris, who served as an MP under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, believes he will win. "People said Mr Cameron did not have what it takes to be Prime Minister," he said. "Clearly he does have what it takes, even if I disagree with a lot of his policies.

"Ed Miliband has it too. He had the courage to say that he thought what the Murdoch media empire was doing was wrong."