If Alistair Darling intended his emergency tax cut as a timely by-election bribe for the voters of Crewe & Nantwich, the Treasury appeared to be £2.7 billion out of pocket for little apparent political gain.

Only one of the 50 voters approached by The Times in a constituency straw poll said that the Government’s U-turn would make a big difference to the way they vote next week, when the Tories are seeking to overturn Labour’s 7,000 majority.

Many insisted that there were more pressing concerns in this low-wage former railway town: rising living costs, council tax, fuel bills, dilapidated services and the arrival of workers from Eastern Europe, notably Poles, who compete for jobs just above the minimum wage.

Liz Dawn, the actress who played Vera Duckworth in Coronation Street, was out and about in the town centre with Tamsin Dunwoody, 49, the Labour Party candidate and daughter of Gwyneth Dunwoody, whose death, aged 77, caused by-election.

Signing autographs and handing out red balloons, the actress confessed that the Chancellor’s mini-Budget had passed her by. “I didn’t see it,” she told The Times but, swiftly briefed by Ms Dunwoody, she added: “It’s brilliant.”

Mark Watson, 40, a family man, retail branch manager and a former Labour voter, said: “It just looks like a guilty way of passing the money back to those who have lost out over the 10p tax row. They were planning to take extra money from the working class, yet they are the party who are supposed to represent them.”

Twelve of those approached by The Times said that they traditionally voted for Labour and would continue to do so but, ominously for Gordon Brown, nine planned to switch from Labour to the Conservatives or Liberal Democrats.

A smaller proportion, including Craig Baldwin, 23, a butcher and father of a two-year-old daughter, had not yet made up their minds. He said: “You could say the Chancellor has not completely swayed me.”

Joan Dyde, 59, a widow who works in a local Asda supermarket, described herself as a “disenchanted Labour voter”. She said: “It won’t change the way I shall vote. This is a very low-wage town, so the 10p tax change will make a big difference to us.”

Meanwhile, both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrat campaign teams picked flaws in the Government’s arithmetic.

Edward Timpson, the Tory candidate, claimed that 2,000 low-paid families in Crewe & Nantwich would still lose out. Elizabeth Shento, the Liberal Democrat candidate, suggested that the figure for those worse off was nearer 9,250. The message for the Prime Minister was equally stark from voters in Nantwich, more comfortably off than its neighbour. Sarah Blakemore, 33, a housewife who voted Labour in the past two elections but will be voting Conservative or Liberal Democrat next week, said that people were very angry with the Government. “The only reason they have done this tax thing is because they have failed in lots of other areas,” she said. “It is just a temporary measure aimed at gaining votes in the by-election.”

Peter Eustance, 67, said: “The tax break is just a quick fix to get votes in Crewe & Nantwich. I have voted Labour in the past but this time I am voting Conservative.”

The silver lining for Mr Darling came in the form of a middle-aged parking attendant. He asked not to be named, but said of the tax cut: “It is a great gesture. It would sway me. I have been a Labour voter.”

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