Delia Smith will appear alongside Ed Miliband and Ed Balls today as she throws her support behind the Labour Party ahead of Thursday's knife-edge general election.

The author, who has taught generations to cook, has written about her own family's experience of the National Health Service in an article explaining why she has been a lifelong Labour supporter.

The joint majority shareholder of Norwich City Football Club will join the campaign trail with the Labour leader and shadow chancellor – who is also an avid fan of the Canaries – as the election campaign reaches its climax.

She is one of a number of high-profile figures to actively campaign for the party.

Wild at Heart actor Stephen Tompkinson was in Norwich yesterday to meet activists and health workers at the Puppet Theatre, while Labour's final party election broadcast in England, which will air tonight, features Alan Partridge actor Steve Coogan.

In 2005 Ms Smith hinted at her political allegiances by posing with former home secretary Charles Clarke and former Labour MP Ian Gibson, and also issuing a statement saying she looked forward to seeing Labour MPs 'tackling pressing sporting issues in the next Parliament'.

But today's intervention will be her most public endorsement of the party.

The author and presenter has written for her former employer, the Daily Mirror, where she was appointed cookery writer for its weekend magazine in 1969.

'The reason I have always voted Labour is initially because my parents did. My mother aged five witnessed the tragic death of her 18-month-old brother because the family could not afford to send for a doctor to treat his pneumonia,' she writes.

'Wind on the years to when I was about seven and I remember we had a poster with a table light behind it in our front window saying 'Vote Labour for a National Health Service' in the year they were campaigning for it.

'In short what I believe profoundly is the party that campaigned for and created the NHS will be the best one to nurture and sustain it for the future.'

She concludes: 'There are some who feel politics in general is getting older and a bit tired. But I would ask those to think more deeply. The Labour Party has more vigour and has younger candidates.

'We need to bring a fresh approach to the House of Commons on how we as a nation can best help and encourage younger people.

'Our future lies with them, and their ideas and vision need to be heard.'

The Conservatives last week gathered a list of businesses which they said were backing them in the general election, including a number in Norfolk and Suffolk.

Do you have an election story? Email political editor annabelle.dickson@archant.co.uk