Campaigners bring new hospital demand to Westminster

The fight to secure a new hospital for has been taken right into the heart of Westminster today.

Activists have held a demonstration outside the Houses of Parliament to reinforce their demand for funding of a rebuild of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in KIng's Lynn, which serves many south Lincolnshire residents.

They then held a meeting with several of the region's MPs on College Green, where around 1,000 postcards calling for rebuild funding were handed over.

The talks took place on the same day that a Parliamentary committee told ministers to alter their response to an online petition demanding priority funding for rebuilding.

A statement from Parliament's Petitions Committee, which has been shared on social media, said: "They felt the response did not directly address the request of petition and have therefore written back to the Government to ask them to provide a revised response."

The group met four MPs including North West Norfolk's James Wild and the South Holland and Deepings representative, Sir John Hayes.

Sir John said he had offered to arrange a meeting with the current health secretary, Sajid Javid.

He said: "What is delivered there in quality and in quantity really matters.

"Having several MPs working together is very powerful because it allows us to make the bridge to the Secretary of State and to articulate the arguments that have been put to us.

"We have a strong voice and we have a united voice."