LABOUR Party members and supporters will march through Liskeard today (Saturday) to deliver letters of protest to MP Sheryll Murray’s office.

The letters, written by South East Cornwall constituents, demand that Mrs Murray ‘listen to the concerns of the community’ over the health service in Cornwall.

Chairman of the Rame and Torpoint branch Labour Party, which is staging the event, is Richard Clarke.

He said: ‘The NHS is in crisis, with reports showing that cuts in local hospitals have caused worsening health, blindness and preventable deaths.

‘Our MP and her Conservative colleagues are voting for health spending below inflation. People are wondering whose side the Tory MPs are on. At best, they are sitting idly by, at worst, they are sabotaging the services we rely on.

‘We call on our elected representative to listen to the concerns outlined in the letters we will be delivering and act with this community in mind rather than constantly voting in line with the party whip.’

The NHS in Cornwall has been instructed to make savings in order to eliminate a deficit. Cuts to the order of £277m have to be made by 2021, says the Labour Party.

Meanwhile, union Unite, which represents hundreds of staff at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust, says that the Care Quality Commission’s damning report on the trust this autumn reflects the impact of budget cuts on care.

The union has called for a cash injection to enable the reopening of community hospitals such as St Barnabas in Saltash and at Fowey.

Regional officer Stuart Roden said: ‘Cornwall has six Tory MPs and they should stop sitting on their hands and be banging on the door of Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt asking for a large financial boost for Cornwall.’

The ‘Stand Together or lose it forever’ march will leave Liskeard’s Cattle Market at 10am and head for the Parade for speeches.