The VW Golf crashed after some dustmen were distracted by the poster launch

Martin Fletcher and Philippe Naughton

Labour’s ill-starred election campaign took another hit today when Gordon Brown’s launch of a poster designed to set the agenda for the final week was interrupted by a car crash.

Witnesses at the poster launch in Hockley, Birmingham, said that, after a long squealing of tyres, Aa green Volkswagen Golf smashed into a bus shelter on a traffic island only yards from the car park where the Prime Minister and nine Cabinet ministers were lined up.

The driver of the car, an unemployed Labour supporter, was apparently trying to avoid a dustcart, one of whose occupants was shouting abuse at the ministers, as it negotiated a nearby roundabout.

Yards away, Lord Mandelson, Labour’s campaign supremo, was in full flight, praising Mr Brown for his “fighting performance” in last night’s final TV debate.

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Mr Brown was next to speak — although by that point all the reporters at the event had rushed over to the scene of the crash, where the car’s airbags were deployed. The emergency services were quick to arrive. Even some of the Prime Minister’s Special Branch officers rushed to the scene.

Omed Rashid, 27, the car driver, said the rubbish truck clipped his Golf, sending it out of control. “Luckily there was no-one at the bus stop,” he said.

One of the refuse collectors, a 40-year-old man who identified himself only as Dell, denied causing the crash and was totally unapologetic. “Half our jobs are gone left, right and centre in this city,” he said.

Journalists and camera crews returned to pepper the ministers with the inevitable question: was the crash a metaphor for Labour’s campaign? “I don’t agree,” Lord Mandelson replied.

“I believe it’s game on for all the parties between now and May 6…We will fight for every vote in every seat.” Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, concurred: “The election is wide open,” he insisted.

A junior official was more candid – “I feel like a dog that can’t be kicked any more.”

Jay Bailey, 36, a self-employed consultant, said that she saw the truck make contact with the car. Mrs Bailey said: “The lorry driver was shouting abuse as they drove past and they did not see the car. It hit the car, which lurched into the bus shelter.”

Stephen Miller, 39, a computer engineer, said: “I heard shouting and turned around and saw three or four guys shouting at the politicians. I turned back round and did not see the crash but heard the car screeching and then the crash.”

Inspector Jim Gooderidge, of West Midlands Police, said: “We don’t know the full circumstances of the incident yet, but the drivers are being spoken to by officers. Nobody was injured.”

The incident came only two days after Mr Brown committed a campaign gaffe, describing a 66-year-old voter as a “bigoted woman” after being questioned over immigration policy in Rochdale.

The two new posters in question feature the slogan — in child-like writing — “Don’t Forget to Vote Labour” and are meant to reinforce Labour warnings that both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats would cut support for families.

“This election is a big choice. About protecting the future of your family, or putting that future at risk,” Mr Brown told the launch. “The time for debate has finished. The time for decision has begun.”

A number of instant polls after the last of three televised debates made David Cameron clear winner, with the Prime Minister again trailing in third place. A snap Populus poll for The Times put Mr Cameron neck and neck with Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, who is hoping to hold the balance of power after May 6.

Labour strategists have been hoping desperately that Mr Brown would put in a performance that would change the dynamics of the campaign — which he clearly failed to do despite pressing home his economic record.

Mr Cameron cautioned that the election was “far from won” for the Conservatives and said that he would spend the next six days concentrating on winning every vote.

The Labour election co-ordinator, Douglas Alexander, also insisted that the result of the election was still uncertain, and said that Mr Brown would carry on fighting until the end.

“He is going to be campaigning the length and breadth of the country in the days ahead,” he said. “We are going to be fighting from now until the election for every single vote. This election is wide open. Nobody has any certainty how this election will play itself out.”

thetimes.co.uk