Anybody who is reading this is probably taking a short break from phoning, leafletting, doorknocking and poster-erecting. My message to you is ‘Keep at it – it is working’.

Last week I experienced the election campaign equivalent of Peter Mandelson’s old mantra that it is only when you are sick to tears with a particular policy slogan that most of the public will begin to register it. I had to extricate a canvasser from a Redditch doorstep after a 15-minute rant from the occupant about how he was sick of all the Labour leaflets and calls he was getting and ‘Who is paying for all this?!’ This is exactly what we need to be seeing, although before we all get carried away it is also worth noting the woman who answered the door to me just down the road and responded, ‘Oh – is there an election on then?’

I am not just basing my case on a couple of anecdotes – here is an interesting piece from Conservative Home analysing some of the messages from the latest round of Michael Ashcroft’s polling of 10 marginal seats. The key message is that while the Tories were doing better in the question, ‘Have you been contacted by Labour or Conservatives in the last few weeks’ at the end of 2014, the most recent set of results shows a complete change round. This is to the credit of activists, local organisers and national party strategy in my view, but it probably reflects a couple of other factors too.

We seem to have more ‘bodies on the ground’ than the Tories – and also far more than we had in 2010. In many marginals, this is because candidates and their closest activists have been working for years gaining contacts and building their volunteer base. However, it is also because there seems to be some momentum building for us. Ed’s early debate appearances motivated Labour supporters –even if he did not win the public polling; the Tory campaign is disjointed and lacklustre – David Cameron has all the enthusiasm of a posh kid coming to the end of his latest internship and already focusing on his next ‘placement’.

One word of warning, however. We all know that money can buy campaigning effort too. While our volunteers are knocking on doors, I have no doubt that there is expensive telephone work being funded by the Tories. Also in the Redditch office, I listened to a fabulous activist questioning whether she really had to tell all her leafleters that they only had until the weekend to deliver their rounds? Yes, she was told, because there is another lot to come next week. The Tories, however, had paid to wrap an expensive production around the local free paper which was obviously delivered without the need for hardworking volunteers.

We have momentum and we have the people, but we also have a long way to go to 7 May and a well funded machine to counter. So it is time to stop reading this article – or anything else on the excellent Progress site – and get back out on the streets. You are doing the business – well done!

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Jacqui Smith is a former home secretary, writes the Monday Politics column for Progress, and tweets @Jacqui_Smith1