It has only been a few weeks since the General Election, and Sutton’s two new Lib Dem MPs have wasted no time jumping into bed with the Labour Government’s plans to abandon the new hospital being built in our borough and vital refurbishments to St. Helier Hospital.
Ever since the new hospital programme was announced in 2019, Lib Dem-run Sutton Council has on every occasion refused to support local NHS plans to build a new hospital offering acute treatment and state of the art emergency care in Belmont. Former Council Leader, Cllr Ruth Dombey, once voiced her opposition to the plans on the spurious grounds of ambulances annoying residents by making noise and driving down roads in Belmont.
Despite this local resistance against the NHS, £500m worth of funding was green-lighted by the previous Conservative Government, and the project was at the point of only needing planning permission to proceed. The Chief Executive of Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, said at the time:
“This is a hugely important and welcome decision about investing £500m here at Epsom and St Helier so we can provide high-quality healthcare for everyone for generations to come in a newly built emergency care hospital and refurbished existing buildings.
“It’s also important to remember that 85% of the services are staying put at Epsom and St Helier Hospitals with urgent treatment centres open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at both.”
But since the election, the two new Lib Dem MPs have now confirmed our greatest fears which were articulated by both Elliot Colburn and Tom Drummond during the General Election campaign.
Reacting to the news of Labour’s recent announcement and the Lib Dems refusal to support the new hospital programme, Cllr Neil Garratt AM, Leader of the Conservatives on the London Assembly and Councillor for Belmont, said:
"With years of work, doctors and experts built a plan to give people in Sutton the health care we deserve. Especially for sick or premature babies and people needing the most urgent care.
“Today Labour killed that plan and Sutton's Lib Dems are doing nothing to fight for it. I share the feeling of so many across Sutton that we have been betrayed by our Lib Dem MPs."
Elliot Colburn, Member of Parliament for Carshalton and Wallington between 2019 and 2024 said:
“During the campaign I said the NHS plans to improve St Helier & build a second local hospital were under threat from Labour and the Lib Dems - and that has now been confirmed.
“Local NHS staff have put so much work into this plan, getting it to the point that it could apply for planning permission and get building. This week, Labour and the Lib Dems have sent them back to square one.”
Cllr Tom Drummond, Conservative Group Leader on Sutton Council, said:
“The NHS had a clear plan to improve Sutton, Cheam and Worcester Park's health care by building a new hospital as well as upgrading St Helier hospital. Sadly, both the Lib Dems and Labour tried to frustrate these plans at every turn, using what the physicians wanted as a political football.
“The current Lib Dem MP for Sutton, Cheam and Worcester Park now seems to want to spend his time attacking the former government than being the voice fighting to improve health care in our area by ensuring the delivery of what the NHS wants.”
Sutton Conservatives have always been determined to support the local NHS plans for healthcare in our borough, not the whims of local politicians.
The Lib Dems and their new MPs instead prefer to oppose the plans of our NHS, play politics and nod along with the Labour Party in Westminster.
