85pc of health cash goes to Labour areas

(ED: Tony does as Tony does, crooks the figures, crooks the weapons of mass destruction, sells honours for New Labour funds, gerrymandering tax spend to suit New Labour Party interests, is there enough space in cyberspace to list the acts of deceit Tony has been involved in. Was he always like this or has he been replaced by an evil spirit?)

Celia Hall, Medical Editor at Daily Telegraph

As much as 85p in every £1 the Government has spent on health has gone into Labour constituencies.

Details from a Parliamentary question show that of the 46 multi-million-pound hospitals built in England since Tony Blair came to power, 33 are in Labour areas. That amounts to £3.5 billion out of a total spend of £4.1 billion.

Government health policy has aimed at removing "health inequalities" and lifting health services in deprived areas many of which are Labour strongholds.

But the Tories say they are still waiting for the Government to tell them why one area is favoured over another and to explain the rationale of agreeing to new hospital developments in particular areas.

Andrew Lansley the shadow health spokesman, said yesterday: "Four in every five of Labour's new hospitals have been built in the constituencies of their own MPs.

The Conservatives say "Ministers are holding secret meetings with Labour Party officials to target up to 60 hospital cutbacks on the constituencies of Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs. These figures confirm what we suspected when Patricia Hewitt went against the advice of experts and ordered a new hospital to be built in a Labour constituency in south London.

A Conservative Party spokesman said that in 2005 Ms Hewitt overturned a decision to build a new critical care hospital on the site of Sutton Hospital, in the Sutton and Cheam constituency of Liberal Democrat MP Paul Burstow.

"Instead, even after seeking the advice of her independent advisers, who similarly recommended the Sutton site, Patricia Hewitt recommended that the new hospital should be built at St Helier, in the Mitcham and Morden constituency of a Labour MP, Siobhan McDonagh," the spokesman said.