WITH just a week left in the great race to the polls, Stourbridge rival election candidates Margot James and Pete Lowe posed together for a picture as both pledged the NHS will be safe in their hands.

Conservative candidate Ms James and Labour's hopeful Pete Lowe, a borough councillor and leader of Dudley Council, met to accept a petition from Stourbridge members of the national campaign group 38 Degrees as part of its Save Our NHS Campaign.

The petition, presented on Saturday at the latest in a series of street events organised by the campaigners, calls for urgent action to defend beleaguered NHS services.

More than 1,000 people have signed the petition - which calls on candidates to promise they will halt the privatisation of NHS services, ensure public spending is directed at healthcare not business and that private health corporations are not allowed to 'compulsorily purchase' parts of the NHS through a new trade deal between Europe and the USA.

David Babbs, executive director of 38 Degrees, said: “We want Stourbridge's MP candidates to see that the best way to win votes is to pledge to save the NHS from privatisation and funding freezes.

"Every candidate needs to realise that cutting NHS funding, or handing it over to private companies, is a huge turn off for voters. Saturday was all about the people of Stourbridge taking back the power, and putting their MP candidates to the test on the NHS.”

Ms James branded the 38 Degrees group "an important part of the democratic process" but added: "The idea that the NHS needs saving is alarmist and very far from the truth. Yes the NHS is under pressure but additional funding and even better organisation I think we can continue as a country to provide health care for people when they need it where they need it. I do not think the NHS is under threat whoever wins the election."

Cllr Lowe, a former nurse, said he was "very proud" to have received the petition and to have signed it and he added: "It will be a very different NHS depending on which party is in Government. Mine is a publicly-driven NHS which remains free at the point of delivery and a number one priority; Margot's NHS is one that has led to 400 redundancies being announced weeks before the election."

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