Guildford’s Labour Candidate Challenges Anne Milton Over NHS ‘Privatisation’

Published on: 17 Aug, 2014
Updated on: 19 Aug, 2014

Anne Milton, Guildford’s Conservative MP, has been challenged by Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Guildford, Richard Wilson, to support a Bill which would “halt the privatisation of the NHS”.

On 21 November, MPs will have the chance to vote to repeal the requirement for NHS services to be put out to tender. They will also be able to restore the cap on private patients in NHS hospitals.

In a letter to Anne Milton, who was a government minister for public health 2010-2012, Richard Wilson wrote, “At the general election in 2010, you stood before the voters of Guildford and Cranleigh on a clear commitment of ‘no top-down reorganisation of the NHS’. Shortly after, this promise was carried into the Coalition Agreement.

“However, within weeks of it being signed, your government brought forward the biggest reorganisation of the NHS in its history. Despite huge opposition from patients and health professionals, you voted in support of the Bill that made it possible.”

Richard Wilson stated in a press release yesterday (August 16), “Voters in Guildford and Cranleigh deserve to know where their MP stands on the NHS. Anne Milton promised no top-down reorganisation before being elected then voted for the biggest top-down reorganisation the NHS has ever seen.

“Last month it was revealed that one in five people here now have to wait over a week to see a GP. People in this constituency are paying the price for David Cameron’s broken NHS promise. I hope Anne Milton, as the local MP, will vote for the Efford Bill on 21 November and repair some of the damage done to the NHS by the Tory-LibDem coalition government.”

The Guildford Dragon NEWS has invited Anne Milton to respond.

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