THE TOWN’S MP and her Labour rival have been called on to stop using the NHS as a political football.
Peter Jewell, who is bidding to win the Redditch Parliamentary seat for UKIP, has told his political rivals to offer practical solutions to the issues facing the NHS and not to score cheap political points.
Mr Jewell pointed to the fact he had used his legal background as a way of helping the Save the Alex campaign expose flaws in the hospital reconfiguration process as an example of the kind of action the two women should be taking.
“The hospital is more important than making it a political dog fight. What Save the Alex have done so well is is they have kept it non-political, it is for everybody’s benefit and everybody’s fight.” he said.
“Do I think the NHS is perfect? No, there’s lots that could be done but at the same time I don’t hear from the politicians solutions.”
Mr Jewell hit out after Redditch MP Karen Lumley threatened legal action against Labour Parliamentary candidate Rebecca Blake for claiming she had systematically voted against the NHS while Ms Blake insisted that she would not be silenced on the issue as the NHS was too important.
Mrs Lumley said she was ‘certainly not going to take any lectures’ from UKIP on the NHS as nobody, including the party themselves, knew what their position was on health.
“They say one thing one day and the exact opposite the next. Nigel Farage disagrees with his own health spokesman on healthcare privatisation.” she said.
“For now they say they are against privatisation but freely admit that this position ‘will probably change again after the election’.
“I would suggest Mr Jewell asks his party to sort out their own farcical affairs before concerning himself with the positions of others.”
Ms Blake added: “If UKIP or anybody else want to know what I and Labour stand for on the NHS they have to look no further than the three year campaign we have been fighting here in Redditch.
“I can’t take seriously any questions from UKIP on the NHS given their leader would like to privatise it.”
