TONY Blair visited Harrow this morning as Labour sent out its big guns in the final push before next week's General Election.

With less than a week until polling day, the former Prime Minister came to Alexandra Avenue Health and Social Care Centre to meet staff and see a part of his party's legacy in government.

He said the polyclinic, in Rayners Lane, is an example of the future of healthcare in Britain, and this approach is mirrored in countries across the world.

Mr Blair said: “If you look across the world, all reforms of healthcare systems are heading in the same direction.

“Hospitals are for people who really need to be in hospital, but with convenient health centres like this, people can by seen the professionals and treated efficiently.

“The election is about whether you want more of places like this or less.”

Mr Blair toured the centre, which opened to great fanfare in 2008, and met with doctors and nurses including Dr Mark Bonar, the lead GP on sexual health and contraceptive services.

Dr Bonar confessed he was a Tory, but said to Mr Blair: “This is all thanks to the Labour government, it's really positive thing you have brought into the NHS.

“I love working here, patients love coming here, and I think it's fabulous.”

As well as touring the health centre, where nearly two thirds of patients would otherwise have had to go to hospital, Mr Blair took questions on Labour's chances in next Thursday's election.

Reflecting on whether Labour had been damaged on immigration after PM Gordon Brown's “bigot” jibe on Wednesday, he said: “I think Labour has the policies to deal with immigration.

“If you want to deal with illegal immigration, the only way to do that is with a strong database and identity system, which is what Labour is proposing.

“I think when it comes to the decision, people will take the election seriously and what matters most – the incident on Wednesday or facilities like this that are here and being used.”

Mr Blair had been due to visit Harrow a couple of weeks ago, but his trip was abandoned after he was stranded in the Middle East because of the ash cloud.

He was flanked during his trip by Gareth Thomas, who is vying to retain the Harrow West seat for Labour in next week's poll.

Mr Blair added, after last night's final leaders' debate, he believes whether parties are up or down in the polls, what really matters is policies and he believes Labour have “every chance of succeeding”.