RUNCORN East MP Mike Amesbury has slammed Government for rejecting a third funding bid for new hospitals in both Halton and neighbouring Warrington.

It comes following news that a bid from Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been snubbed by the Government.

The trust had applied for cash to build a new Halton Hospital at a cost of £93million, plus a new £317million Warrington Hospital. 

But the project was absent from a statement by Health Secretary Steve Barclay outlining the successful schemes.

Mr Amesbury, Labour MP for Weaver Vale, said: “This is yet another broken promise. It is extremely disappointing and a crushing blow given it is the third funding bid to be rejected.

“I would like to say I am surprised, but I am not. It is a Government marked by spin and bluster, by over-promising and not delivering. Here we are again.”

More than 1,500 people backed Mr Amesbury’s petition to secure money for a new Halton campus, given parts of the hospital estate are more than 45 years old.

Neighbouring Halton Labour MP Derek Twigg has also been pressing the case.

Mr Amesbury added: “We have still got a desperate need for a new hospital.

“Surely the Tories’ much talked about levelling up should be about promoting people’s health and wellbeing in communities like ours, which is severely socially deprived.

“For that, we need first class primary and secondary health and care facilities.”

The hospital bid was submitted after the Department of Health and Social Care invited expressions of interest from NHS trusts as part of its New Hospital Programme.

No less than 40 new hospitals by 2030 were promised in the 2019 Tory manifesto, but reports indicate only 10 have so far secured full planning permission.

Looking to the future, Mr Amesbury added: “Governments come and go, and I will work my damned hardest to ensure this one is a goner at the next general election.

“We need a Labour Government that not only protects the NHS, but ensures it thrives and moves forward. That means investment in health facilities our local community.”