Election Row Over Ealing Hospital Simmers On
Joy Morrissey denies she derided the NHS saying she cares passionately about it
The increasing bitter and personal contest between the two main contenders for the Ealing Central and Acton seat has reached a new level with claims of smear tactics following the publication of a national news story about the Tory candidate.
The Daily Mirror republished details from a blog written by Joy Morrissey in 2016 on the Conservative Way Forward website which accused Labour of "fetishising" the NHS and said people should stop calling it "our NHS" or "treating it like a religion."
The Ealing Central and Acton seat was won by Rupa Huq for Labour in the last election by just 274 votes and this campaign has been increasingly fractious with Ms Morrissey threatening legal action over what she describes as lies in Labour party campaign leaflets. She is objecting to an implication that she supports the closure of Ealing Hospital. The hospital is being downgraded from a district to a local hospital as part of national cost-cutting 'Sustainability and Transformation Plans' (STPs).
Responding to the Daily Mirror report Rupa Huq said: "This confirms what we already know - The Tories won’t protect Ealing [Hospital] because their candidate looks at our NHS with derision.
"She should apologise for these offensive remarks."
However, Joy Morrissey has fired back telling us, '' That NHS article was written two years ago. Rupa Huq has had it in her files for two years - yet somehow managed to save her mock outrage until three days before the election and send it to the Mirror. The piece was specifically titled ‘The Final Countdown’ to draw attention to Labour’s endless deadlines and scaremongering regarding the NHS. A tactic they have used yet again to mislead the public in Ealing at this election. Only this time they have been found out. They have had to retract the blatant lies they published about Ealing Hospital in their election literature and are now subject to legal action.
''My record on health in Ealing is clear - I helped saved the Solace Centre, a crucial mental health facility Labour was intent on closing, campaigned for more GP surgeries in the area. I will always fight to protect our local hospitals but I refuse to use them as a political tool, unlike my Labour opponent.''
She says that she cares passionately about the NHS and believes in its founding principles. Although she shares local concerns about the STP but says that 80% of existing patients will be able to use Ealing Hospital as they currently are. She accuses her opponents of employing scare tactics and suggesting that both Ealing and Charing Cross Hospital are set to close quoting the Chief Executive of Imperial NHS Trust which runs Charing Cross Hospital saying in an open letter to the leader of Hammersmith Council in April 2017, these are “misleading claims”.
Ms Morrissey says, "As Theresa May has pledged in our Manifesto, we will hold NHS leaders to account for delivering their plans to improve patient care and we will do this robustly locally. We want to ensure that the local NHS does not close any of these beds until all the community services are up and running and delivering the reduction in admissions they promise, and if this is not being delivered then new plans are drawn up."
A spokesperson for Dr Rupa Huq stated:
“The Tory candidate wrote that the public have a "glutinous" approach to the NHS in 2016, which was last year. The Tory candidate voted against the ‘Save Our Hospitals’ campaign in April 2017, which was mere weeks ago. That is all the voters need to know”.
7 June 2017 ( updated)