Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg made impassioned pitches to voters as they faced-off in the final televised debate of the General Election campaign in Birmingham.

The party leaders clashed over immigration and the economy in the 90-minute BBC debate at the University of Birmingham on Thursday night.

Mr Brown tried to draw a line under the row when he branded a pensioner “bigoted” after she raised concerns over immigration with him, issuing a plea to voters to judge him on his economic competence and not his personality.

“There is a lot to this job and, as you saw, I don’t get all of it right,” he said. “But I do know how to run the economy, in good times and in bad.”

Mr Cameron said: “If you vote Labour, you get more of the same. If you vote Liberal Democrat, it is uncertainty.” Only an outright Tory victory could deliver “a clean break, taking our country in the right direction and bringing the change we need”.

And Mr Clegg urged voters not to be frightened of voting for “something really different”.

“This is your election, this is your country,” Mr Clegg said. “When you go to vote next week, choose the future you really want.”

Mr Brown acknowledged that in eight days’ time, Conservatives could be in power – perhaps with Liberal Democrat support – after 13 years of Labour rule.

And he said: “I don’t like having to do this, but I have got to tell you that things are too important to be left to risky policies under these two people. They are not ready for government, because they have not thought through their policies.”