CHARLES Kennedy named North Wiltshire as a prime target for the Liberal Democrats during a visit to the constituency.

The Lib Dem leader was speaking after he met residents at Burnham House nursing home in Malmesbury yesterday.

He was in the constituency, which includes Wootton Bassett and Purton, to lend support to Paul Fox's campaign to unseat Tory James Gray.

"This is one of our prime target seats," Mr Kennedy said. "That is why I am here today. This seat is eminently winnable."

Residents at the home were keen to congratulate Mr Kennedy on the birth of his son Donald and he took the chance to talk about his first child.

"He has been very good," he said. "He has got his mother's temperament but he seems to have my red hair."

Ninety-year-old Mary Wicks presented Mr Kennedy with a gift of booties and a cardigan she had knitted for Donald and was impressed with the politician's manner.

"He is lovely," she said.

"If I were younger I would fall in love with him."

But politics also featured in the discussions at the home.

When Vera Punter, 92, told Mr Kennedy she would be switching her vote from the Conservatives to the Lib Dems he replied: "You and many others."

The Lib Dems are chasing a Conservative majority of 3,878 in North Wiltshire. And if they win this time they will be beating a man Mr Kennedy described as 'an old sparing partner'.

Mr Gray stood in Mr Kennedy's Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency in 1992 before winning the North Wiltshire seat in 1997.

Mr Kennedy's last visit to North Wiltshire was last April when he went to Wootton Bassett and Chippenham.

Coun Fox enjoyed welcoming the party leader to the area again.

"It is the second time that Charles has been to this constituency in the past year and I am hoping to invite him back as MP for North Wiltshire after the election," he said.

The Lib Dems are not so well placed in the two Swindon seats, where the party came a distant third at the last election.

Sue Stebbing and Mike Evemy, South and North Swindon candidates, also met Mr Kennedy during yesterday's visit.

During the 2001 election campaign a senior figure in the Swindon Lib Dems, Jane Mactaggart, urged supporters to vote for Labour in South Swindon because Julia Drown was an excellent MP and because realistically the choice was between Labour and the Tories.

But Mr Kennedy told the Adver that Liberal Democrats in Swindon would not be giving their vote to Labour this time around.

"In 1997 and 2001 there was an element of giving Labour the benefit of the doubt," he said.

"No such feeling exists today after all the broken promises and spin from Labour over the past four years. I don't think you will find Liberal Democrats minded to give Labour the benefit of the doubt."

Isabel Field