Brighton MP accuses rival of misleading voters over hospital funding

Brighton Kemptown MP Simon Kirby has accused one of his political rivals of misleading voters over the funding required to modernise the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

The Conservative MP said that a letter from Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt disproved claims made by Labour parliamentary candidate Nancy Platts.

The dispute revolves around the £420 million cost of replacing outdated buildings on the Royal Sussex site in Eastern Road, Brighton.

Ms Platts said on Twitter in November: “@SimonKirbyMP luckily the last #Labour Govt put £420m aside for a new hospital in #Brighton.”

Mr Kirby said that this was not the case.

And on Ms Platts’s website she posted a letter to the Sussex Express newspaper from Labour Party member Nicky Easton which said: “Plans to build the new hospital at the Royal Sussex County have been in place long before the current government, with a business case for the hospital previously been approved under Labour in 2009.

Nancy Platts

“Provisional approval had been made by the last government subject to a number of conditions being fulfilled, not least planning consent, which was subsequently granted by the council unanimously in January 2012.

“The major issues that needed to be addressed for the hospital plan to get a green light have now been resolved.

However, the project has stalled with the Department of Health and Treasury ever since, and final approval is being put at risk because the trust is being asked to make £30 million cuts each year for the next three years.

“Given that most of the work took place before the Conservative-led coalition was in power and Simon Kirby was MP, and scant progress has been made since, where has Simon Kirby been for the past three years to help make this vital new hospital happen?

“The fact that, 18 months before the next general election, Mr Kirby has belatedly begun to campaign for the hospital project to get off the ground looks exactly like the playing of party politics with the NHS that he has publicly bemoaned.”

Mr Kirby has lobbied Mr Hunt about the project and last year presented a petition to him from constituents.

He also raised the matter at Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons.

And the Health Secretary has since written to Mr Kirby saying that the strategic outline case for redevelopment, needed before redevelopment could go ahead and agreed in 2008, “did not authorise any expenditure on construction works on site and did not require approval by the government.

“I can confirm categorically that development of the regional centre for teaching, trauma and tertiary care at the RSCH was not approved by the previous government and it is not the case that this government has withheld the release of funds for its construction.”

Mr Kirby said: “Nancy Platts owes the whole Brighton Kemptown constituency an abject apology.

“Labour had 13 years to redevelop the Sussex County and failed to do so.

Simon Kirby and Jeremy Hunt

“Nancy has misled local people when she says the last Labour Government ‘put aside’ the money needed. This is clearly not the case.

“Nancy would do better if she spent more time learning local facts rather than issuing misleading statements and attending demonstrations at the hospital where effigies of dedicated hospital staff are being paraded.

“That she would issue such a completely misleading statement on a matter of such importance brings into doubt her credibility as a parliamentary candidate for Labour.

“My campaign engaging local people, hard-working hospital staff, and members of the government, including the Prime Minister, will continue until my constituents and the hospital staff get the 21st century hospital they deserve.

“The Labour candidate would be better served by supporting my campaign rather than trying to score cheap political points at the expense of local people.”

Ms Platts said: “Accusations like this detract from the real issue. People in Brighton want to know when the hospital will be built.

“Everyone knows that Labour was behind this scheme and got the ball rolling.

“Now we need a commitment from Tory/Lib Dem government that it’s going to happen.

“Last week it was reported that the Royal Sussex was on red alert.

“Tory MP Simon Kirby needs to start asking his ministers why local people are not getting the investment that is so desperately needed in their local NHS.”