Lib Dem taunts Stratford MP over post-Brexit NHS funding
STRATFORD-ON-AVON MP Nadhim Zahawi today (Tuesday) responded to a challenge from a local Liberal Democrat councillor on the provision of funding for the NHS following the decision to leave the EU.
The challenge had been issued by Stratford district councillor Peter Moorse (Lib Dem, Hathaway) in a tongue-in-cheek reference to the “Vote Leave” campaign’s slogan that Britain’s exit from the EU would mean the £350 million a week given to Brussels by the UK could now be spent on the NHS.
At yesterday’s (Monday’s) special meeting of Stratford District Council – which was organised to adopt the long-awaited planning core strategy – Cllr Moorse, the main opposition leader on the council, said it “was not all bad news from the EU referendum”.
Said Cllr Moorse: “I understand that the country will be saving £350 million a week, which will be available for the NHS. The core strategy includes a substantial list of NHS infrastructure projects needed in the district, including new hospital wards and doctors’ surgeries.
“The total cost over the plan is £45 million. Our local MP in Stratford was an enthusiastic ‘leaver’. Could I ask the leader [Cllr Chris Saint] if he will approach Mr Zahawi, to see how much of the £45 million needed can be funded from the huge savings available from leaving the EU?”
Asked by the Herald for a response to Cllr Moorse, Mr Zahawi said: “The argument from the Vote Leave campaign was that our government should take control of British taxpayers’ money that we currently send to the EU, and then decide how the money is spent according to our priorities. This is what the British people have chosen, and it is what will now happen.
“We will have a new government in the coming days, and it will be up to Theresa May and her new ministers to decide how taxpayers’ money is spent, rather than the current situation of billions of pounds being controlled by the EU.
“I will continue to represent my constituency and its needs to the government, as I always have done, and work hard to ensure that our requirements are met.”
Cllr Saint (Cons, Shipston North), the leader of the council to whom Cllr Moorse’s question was directed, told the Herald today: “I am sure that Nadhim Zahawi MP will do his best to maximise national funding for NHS projects in the Stratford-on-Avon district.
“There were challenges during the referendum campaign about there being £350m per week to dedicate to the NHS. Some of that money may need to be spent on doing things that we need done that EU will be no longer doing. Cllr Moorse over-simplifies the question.”
