Party leaders embark on final tour as voters head to the polls

David Cameron has claimed the Scottish National Party will impose 'the cruellest cut of all' and force up taxes if they support Ed Miliband in leading a minority Labour government.

The Prime Minister made a final visit to Cannock Chase to try to persuade voters to stick with the Conservatives.

He was at Stepping Stones day nursery, based in Heath Hayes Community Centre where he said: "It's the heart of England," Mr Cameron said. "It's seats like this that determine whether we wake up on Friday morning with a long term economic plan that's working, with me as Prime Minister, with the jobs we've seen here in the West Midlands or put it all at risk with Ed Miliband backed by the SNP.

"I wanted to make my case to people in Cannock Chase to stick with the team that's turning it around."

In an interview with the Express & Star he admitted he had just one regret about his time as Prime Minister, which was not introducing his scheme to help first time buyers sooner. It was unveiled in 2013.

Mr Cameron said: "I think we should have done Help to Buy sooner.

"The banks weren't lending. The system was furred up and as a result the buyers wouldn't buy, the builders wouldn't build, the lenders wouldn't lend, we needed to unblock that.

"Help to Buy has been a Dyno Rod we've pushed through the system. I want people who work hard to keep more of their own money.

"There are lots of people who want a good people for themselves and their communities. It's difficult bringing up children. It costs money. Go for the people who are cutting your taxes and reforming welfare rather than those who would be held hostage by the SNP.

"The bill for that is £190 billion. That is going to lead to the cruellest cut of all, which is a cut in take home pay as Labour puts up your taxes."

Mr Miliband, however, has stressed he will not do any deals with the Scottish nationalists.

Speaking from the campaign trail in Lancashire and Yorkshire, he said: "I'm not countenancing defeat. I'm focusing on winning the election.

"I'm going right up to the line, right down to the wire talking about the issues that matter to the British people, which is the NHS, their family finances, whether they can pay the bills at the end of the month, those bread-and-butter issues that matter most to the British people.

"I'm optimistic but it will be in the hands of the people come tomorrow and I know the people will make the right judgment.

"And, I hope people make a judgment on the basis of what's best for them and their family because I'm not just asking people to vote Labour, I'm asking people to vote to put their family first in this election.

"I think on the ballot paper is the National Health Service, tax credits and child benefits, family finances, our young people, and that's why I ask people to vote Labour.

"Mr Miliband warned that a fresh coalition between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats posed a "huge risk" to working families.

Both parties have defended the non-dom tax avoidance rule and will continue to "protect the privileged few" if they remain in power, he claimed.

"We will abolish non-dom status," he said.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, facing a fight to hold on to his seat in Sheffield Hallam, said voters faced 'the biggest political decision of their lives' in the General Election as he continued his marathon campaign tour.

The Liberal Democrat leader said his party could provide stability but warned that Labour and the Tories were in danger of 'sleepwalking' to a 'messy' minority government.

Mr Clegg, who was travelling to John O'Groats on the final leg of his tour of Lib Dem battleground seats, claimed Ed Miliband and David Cameron refused to admit neither of them would win an outright majority.

But he has refused to do any deal where power would be shared with the SNP or UKIP.

Political editor Daniel Wainwright watched as David Cameron visited Cannock.

His tie nowhere to be seen, the top button of his shirt undone, this was Dave in full Dad mode.

After an election campaign focussed rigidly on the economy, on statistics and mind numbingly dull data, the Prime Minister was keen to make a last bid for the family vote in Cannock Chase.

This was a constituency the Tories had not expected to win in 2010.

Now they cannot afford to lose it.

Sitting down to meet the mothers of children at Stepping Stones day nursery, based in Heath Hayes Community Centre, the Prime Minister swapped stories about his daughter Florence, born shortly after he entered Number 10.

"She was born in the August," he said. "So she was still so little when she started school. But she came bounding across the playground and she loved it."

Earlier he had been consulting a neat ring binder containing details of the constituency he was visiting and the candidate he was supporting.

"When you're doing four regions in a day, I haven't yet said it's so nice to be here in, you know, Bolton, when I'm Birmingham but it could happen at any stage," he said.

Of course he's already come in for stick for forgetting he supported Aston Villa and telling people to back West Ham.

"But I know I'm in Cannock Chase and I'm delighted to be here and we're talking about childcare which is one of our key manifesto pledges, the 30 hours for three and four year olds of working parents," he said.

"It makes a big difference."

Mr Cameron was given a blue star by three-year-old Lily Benton, whose mother Kate, 31, sends her to the day nursery while she is at work as a teacher.

Mr Cameron said: "I'll keep this with me. It's a good omen."

He'll need all the omens and lucky charms he can get. He keeps brandishing a copy of a letter by the former Labour minister Liam Byrne, left in the Treasury in 2010, which declared 'there is no money left' to remind people about why he says he made all those cuts.

His visit seemed to have worked as far as the mothers were concerned.

Lily's mother Kate, a teacher, says she will be voting Conservative today. She is 31 and has not previously voted.

But the polls seem to suggest Cannock Chase is heading back towards supporting Labour.

The rise of UKIP has dropped a huge boulder in this election campaign. The party is on course for 21 per cent of the vote, up from a mere three per cent last time.

Mr Cameron might yet live to regret not sitting down sooner with those who switched to UKIP over Europe and immigration, the way he sat and chatted to mothers in Cannock Chase.