LABOUR leader Ed Miliband made a last-minute stop off in the Black Country today (Sunday) to rally the troops ahead of polling day.

Dedicated party activists, councillors and candidates crammed into Polly's Tea Room in Brierley Hill this afternoon for a chance to see Mr Miliband, who was urging for a final wave of support in the last remaining days before voters go to the polls on Thursday (May 7).

He told supporters at the Mill Street cafe: "There's less than 100 hours to go, use them to knock on doors. If you've got any DIY between now and Thursday put it off.

"Any family weddings I'm afraid they should be postponed between now and next Thursday - we have a job to do.

"I'm going to keep going until 10pm on Thursday night."

He urged party members to "knock doors, make phone calls, deliver leaflets" to help Stourbridge's Pete Lowe and Dudley South's Natasha Millward win the fight for seats in Westminster.

As both constituencies are key battleground seats - success here would put Mr Miliband in line to be the next Prime Minister. But both presently have Conservative majorities of 5,164 (Stourbridge) and 3,856 (Dudley South).

Mr Miliband praised both local Parliamentary candidates as energetic and "committed to the area" and he said: "This election is going to be close - it could come down to a few hundred votes."

I would urge people in Dudley to come out and vote Labour to protect their local services. The Tories want to double the cuts which would be disastrous."

He said Labour is "fighting for an £8 minimum wage, fighting to ban zero hours contracts, fighting for the NHS, for young people and fighting to cut tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000" and he added: "That's a promise I'm going to keep."

He also pledged to scrap the Bedroom Tax and he told the News: "It's not about ourselves, it's about the people we want to stand up for.

"Do people want another five years of a government that stands up for the rich and powerful or that stands up for working people?

"Thats fundamentally the choice in this election."

Labour's loyal members said they were "very pleased" to see Mr Miliband stop off in Brierley Hill as Election Day grows ever nearer.

Councillor Dave Tyler, who defected from the Lib Dems to join Labour, said his party leader's speech was "really inspiring" and he added: "You feel he's a genuine man."

And he said local Labour activists were "optimistic" about their chances on Thursday.

He added: "We've had a really good response on the doorstep."

Brierley Hill ward councillor Zafar Islam added: "I'm sure he will win. I'm sure people have had enough of cuts and people have had enough of fear of the future.

"He's a person whose shown his metal in spite of everything that's been thrown at him."

Former Conservative leader William Hague, however, told the News during a recent visit to Dudley South that a win for Labour and Ed Miliband would put the country's economy at stake and mean daily battles with the Scottish Nationalist Party.

Meanwhile Black Country Conservative candidates Mike Wood (Dudley South) and Margot James (Stourbridge) have rubbished Labour's concerns about public services such as the NHS saying it receives more funding now than it did five years ago and Ms James told the News last week she did not think the NHS was "under threat whoever wins the election".

What do you think of Mr Miliband's pledges? Have your say by leaving a comment below.