FORMER Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott clashed with an angry voter as his battle bus tour arrived in Southampton.

Mr Prescott took centre stage in Shirley precinct and launched into a rambling speech defending Labour’s record and denouncing Tory plans.

Joined on a bench by Test candidate Alan Whitehead he told gathered crowds that jobs, health and education were safer under Labour.

But his flow was disrupted when he was heckled over MPs’ greedy behaviour on expenses. Angry Margaret Phillips, 54, from Maybush, questioned who was “regulating the MPs” and accused them of being “in it for themselves”.

Mr Prescott, who is stepping down after 40 years as an MP, insisted that they were not all the same and boomed over his microphone: “Come up here and have an argument with us”.

Mrs Phillips declined but snapped back: “Are you going to shout over everyone that disagrees with you?”

The self-confessed UKIP supporter later told the Daily Echo: “All the main parties are the same. They make promises on everything but once they get into power they do what they want.”

Mr Prescott was in town to lift turnout among voters who he said had previously assumed that Labour would win after their 1997 landslide.

He said that Southampton was “very important” for Labour, although did not consider it a “marginal”.

He said: “I think you’ve got two very good MPs here, there is no doubt about that.

I’ve been walking around with them and seen the response in the streets. That shows they are MPs that work and that’s important. Not everybody has the same kind of turnout.”

Passers-by queued to take pictures of Mr Prescott before he headed off in his bus to rally more supporters.