With just seven days to go before the General Election, Sussex pavements are taking a pounding from the feet of politicians.

Yesterday David Willetts, from the Conservatives, and Labour's Paul Boateng visited the county to try to boost their candidates' support.

Mr Willetts, shadow secretary for work and pensions, was in Rottingdean and Saltdean with Brighton Kemptown candidate Judith Symes.

He warned of a pensions crisis unless workers began saving more for their retirement and said too many pensioners were being forced to undergo the "indignity" of means-tested benefits.

He said: "Workers aren't saving enough to have a decent income when they retire. We need to rebuild a savings culture and reverse-means testing."

Mr Willetts said the Tories would give pension savers an extra 10p back in tax relief for every pound saved and increase the basic state pension by earnings rather than prices - giving a single pensioner an extra £7 a week on top of inflation over four years.

But Mr Boateng, a treasury minister who spoke to business people with Labour's candidate for Brighton Pavilion, David Lepper, said: "We won't take any lessons on pensions from a party that was responsible for pension mis-selling and pensioner poverty. We are targeting our help on the poorest pensioners with the pension credit, winter fuel payments and help with council tax."

The minister also hailed Brighton as the country's premier centre for new media and creative industries.

Meanwhile, DJ Norman Cook has come out in support of Bob and Gene Dobbs, who are running under the Free Party banner in Hove and Portslade and Brighton Kemptown.

Norman, also known as Fatboy Slim, played at a fund-raiser for the pair, whose slogan is "all style, no substance", at the Ocean Rooms on Tuesday.