Labour MP David Blunkett has warned county voters that a Conservative administration would mean a £40 million public service cut in the area.

Mr Blunkett visited Wellington yesterday to meet and greet leaders of ethnic minority groups and offer support to Labour’s Wrekin candidate Paul Kalinauckas.

And the former Home Secretary said putting the Tories into power would have disastrous consequences for Shropshire.

He said: “The six billion pounds the Conservatives are committed to cutting this year will be somewhere between £30 and £40 million a year for this area alone and that is staggering.

“Do they want their school cutting? Do they want their health service reducing? Do they want their police sacking? Do they want their environment worsening? Of course they don’t but somebody has to pay for it. You can’t have the kind of reductions the Tories are talking about and maintain public services.”

Mr Blunkett added Labour was targeting the Wrekin seat – currently held by Conservative’s Mark Pritchard.

“I think we’ve got to fight for every vote here – because people are being taken for granted by the Conservative party,” he said.

“They’ve decided that this is a safe seat and it isn’t a safe seat. There are no safe seats for any of us in this election.”

Mr Blunkett, who was educated at the Royal Normal College for the Blind while it was based near Shrewsbury, even had time for a cone of chips at Wellington’s new Smithfield chip shop and restaurant.

Smithfield’s owner Kyri Kyriatou said: “We only opened last Tuesday and David Blunkett isn’t a bad customer to have in the first week.”

Mr Kalinauckas said he was delighted to welcome Mr Blunkett to the area.