IF, as the Conservatives jeers suggested, John Grogan has taken his final bow at Prime Minister's Questions he can at least take comfort from going out with a dignity lacking from most of his Parliamentary colleagues this week.

As MPs on all sides turned Tony Blair's last appearance at the Despatch Box in this Parliament into a pantomime, Mr Grogan - who faces a struggle to defend Labour's slender 2,138 majority in Selby - subtlty reminded voters why the battle-weary party has a bright future.

Taunted by Tories waving - to signal "bye-bye" on the assumption he will lose his seat on May 5 and would not be returning to the Commons - the backbencher maintained his composure to explain why Labour should be handed a historic third term in power.

He said: "Although it has not always been the case, does the Prime Minister agree that on this occasion the Government have a unique two-for-one offer to make at the General Election - vote Labour, and keep not only an experienced Prime Minister tested by fire but a successful Chancellor with good future prospects?"

Tony Blair looked amused yet slightly embarrassed. "On that happy note, I wish everyone well," he muttered.

For Mr Grogan, who entered Parliament in Labour's landslide victory in 1997, had touched upon one thing that may persuade floating voters to plump for the Labour Party despite disillusion over issues such as the Iraq war, university tuition fees and foundation hospitals.

That is the belief that Gordon Brown, a man who has successfully controlled the nation's purse strings for eight years, overseeing Britain's rise to one of the world's leading economies, will take over from Mr Blair as leader of the Labour Party some time during the next four or five years.

Where Mr Blair is seen by some as shifty, elusive, glib and a bit loose with the truth - whether it be his tenuous justifications for going to war against Saddam Hussein or his mistaken claim that in the 1960s he used to sit in Newcastle United's Gallowgate end and watch the club's star centre-forward Jackie Milburn (Milburn had actually retired by the time Mr Blair visited St James Park) - Mr Brown is considered reliable, honest, staunch and steeped in the values and traditions of Old Labour.

In other words, a vote-winner.

This could well be enough to persuade people who have grown sick and tired of Mr Blair - people who, in Michael Howard's words, want to "wipe the grin off his face" - to give Labour another chance.

And it is crucial to MPs such as Mr Grogan who are desperately fighting for their political lives in marginal seats.

After months of skirmishing in a phoney war, the Tories and Liberal Democrats used a high-octane PMQs - the last showpiece occasion before the election - to rubbish Mr Blair's record.

He had broken pledges on tuition fees, pensions, national insurance, crime and health, they said.

And throwing at him a version of the words the Chancellor is said to have used when Mr Blair allegedly reneged on promises to hand over the party leadership, Mr Howard asked: "Why should people ever believe him again?"

If they do - and with people still suspicious of trusting the Tory party, it is likely they will - it may be enough to ensure MPs such as Mr Grogan, who have been clearing their Westminster offices in the run-up to the poll, will return to Parliament.

Updated: 09:04 Friday, April 08, 2005