Senior Winchester Lib Dem defects over NHS (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Senior Winchester Lib Dem defects over NHS

11:31am Tuesday 12th February 2013 in Winchester

UKIP leader Nigel Farage campaigning in Eastleigh

A former Winchester Lib Dem activist and local party chairman has defected to the newly-formed National Health Action Party as the Eastleigh by-election battle heats up.

Dr Graham Winyard, who was also the deputy chief medical officer for England and Wales in the 1990s, accused politicians of all parties of betraying the NHS and said the mid-Staffs scandal was the direct result of meddling and bullying by both Labour and Tory governments.

Dr Winyard, ex-chair of Winchester and Chandlers Ford Liberal Democrats who quit the party last year, is calling on the constituents of neighbouring Eastleigh to vote for the candidate representing the National Health Action Party in the by-election on February 28.

The NHA Party announced their Eastleigh candidate on Friday - local doctor and former Navy medical officer Iain Maclennan. The NHA party was founded in November by a group of healthcare professionals to safeguard and improve the NHS.

Dr Graham Winyard, of Christchurch Road, St Cross, said: "The voters of Eastleigh have a unique chance to demand a return to the original values of the NHS by voting for the National Health Action party."