Gordon Brown joined the Glasgow North East by-election campaign yesterday and launched a fierce attack on Alex Salmond’s SNP government, claiming that the Nationalists had failed the city.

The Prime Minister described the recent decision by the SNP-devolved government to cancel a £170 million rail project to link the city centre with Glasgow Airport as “inexplicable, shortsighted and wrong”.

It was Mr Brown’s first campaign visit before the by-election which takes place on Thursday to elect a replacement for Michael Martin, the Commons Speaker, who stepped down in June.

The decision to scrap the Glasgow Airport Rail Link (GARL) has infuriated the city’s Labour-led city council who saw it as an integral part of the city’s preparations to host the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

The SNP Government, which announced its decision in its draft Budget in September, has argued that the project was running over budget and was not essential to the city.

Mr Brown, however, on a visit to North Glasgow College, used the dropping of GARL to accuse the SNP of “ripping off Glasgow” — a slogan Labour has used throughout the by-election campaign.

The Prime Minister, who was greeted at the college by a handful of protesters who described themselves as “independent nationalists”, said the GARL cancellation would mean the loss of hundreds of jobs across Glasgow and added: “It is an inexplicable, wrong, and shortsighted choice that the people of Glasgow will not forget.”

Mr Brown focused most of his comments on praising Willie Bain, the Labour candidate, who, he said, would represent voters’ priorities of “fairness and responsibility”.

However, he also made reference to Mr Salmond, without actually naming him. The First Minister last year attracted controversy after saying in a radio interview that Scots minded Margaret Thatcher’s economic policies less than they minded her social policies. Mr Brown said yesterday that Mr Bain had grown up in the constituency during the Thatcher years.

“This whole community was abandoned and cut out by politicians who believed unemployment was a price worth paying. There will be no return to those days, no time for those who ‘didn't mind’ those policies,” said Mr Brown.

Opposition parties have claimed that in spite of Mr Brown’s visit yesterday, the Prime Minister has hardly figured in Labour’s campaign literature. Labour has instead concentrated on playing up Mr Bain’s local roots and Mr Brown was careful to follow that line.

However, Mr Bain’s views appear sometimes at odds with the official Labour line. The SNP claimed yesterday that at a recent televised by-election hustings he had attacked the war in Iraq and also supported the recent industrial action by Royal Mail staff.

The SNP said: “If Willie Bain doesn't support his Government's policies, how can he expect the people of Glasgow North East to vote for them?”

However, with less than a week left until voters in Glasgow North East go to the polls, Mr Bain appears to be fending off the challenge from the Nationalists.

Meanwhile, campaign strategists in all parties are expressing fears that the turn-out will be lower than 40 per cent with many voters furious about the behaviour of MPs caught up in the Commons expenses scandal.

The by-election has been called following the decision by Michael Martin, now Lord Martin of Springburn, to step down as the area’s MP in the wake of controversy over his role in the expenses scandal.

Mr Martin, held the seat at the general election, with a 10,100 majority over the SNP.

Both Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, who are fielding candidates at this by-election, did not stand in the constituency in 2005 in accordance with the Westminster convention of not opposing the Speaker.

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