Hospital campaigner accuses local Tories of "cheap political trick"

Image via Dewsbury Reporter

Dewsbury councillor and hospital campaigner Karen Rowling, has accused Kirklees Conservative Group of playing a "cheap political trick" over the issue of Dewsbury & District Hospital.

At yesterday's Full Council, the last before the May elections, Cllrs Robert Light (Conservative, Birstall & Birkinshaw) and Cllr David Hall (Conservative, Liversedge & Gomersal) tried to pass a motion supposedly against the huge downgrade proposed for Dewsbury Hospital.

But when an amendment in the name of hospital campaigner Cllr Karen Rowling (Labour, Dewsbury West) was put forward, Conservative leader Cllr Light and his Deputy, Cllr Hall, instructed their councillors to vote against it. The amended motion passed, with the amendment supported by every other group in the council.

Cllr Rowlng said: "It's a shame that these councillors convictions don't stretch far enough to criticise the disastrous polices that their own party are implementing nationally."

"In the wording of their motion Cllrs Light and Hall wanted to put all the blame on Trust management. It's true that the Trust has suffered from bad management, for a number of years. But to completely omit a mention of the disastrous affect that government policy is having on our NHS is disingenuous in the extreme. It's playing politics."

"My amendment made two modest changes; against mass privatisation of our NHS, and against Clause 119 of the Care Bill, which allows politicians in Westminster to shut hospitals without public consultation. Cllrs Light and Hall immediately instructed all of the Tory councillors to vote down the amendment."
"So can we conclude from this that every Tory councillor in Kirklees agrees with privatisation and is against public consultation?"

"Cllrs Light and Hall, and also Cllr Bolt, have all made noises in the last few weeks as though they are against the massive downgrade of our hospital. But yesterday we learnt that it's all talk. They have used the last Full Council before an election to cast themselves in a caring light, but the reality is there is no substance to what they say. It's a cheap political trick."

"I have been fighting these plans for over two years, alongside many colleagues on the council. I don't remember these three out on the campaign trail."

"The changes being proposed at Dewsbury put peoples lives at risk, and this is what the local Tory party are doing. Local people deserve much, much better."