A SOUTHAMPTON election candidate has hit out at a rival, saying she has falsely claimed he wanted to close a threatened health centre.

Conservative Itchen hopeful Royston Smith has branded Labour rival Rowenna Davis “dishonest” after she said he wanted to close the Bitterne walk-in centre.

In an email to a resident seen by the Daily Echo she says “the Conservative candidate actually advocated closing it” but Mr Smith stresses that he campaigned to fight for the facility when it was under threat last year.

As reported by the Daily Echo, both candidates launched separate campaigns to save the threatened facility when the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) proposed closing it for six months over the winter.

Ms Davis, who is hoping to succeed John Denham as Labour MP, launched a petition while Mr Smith put forward cost-saving proposals for the facility.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition also launched a campaign, and the CCG eventually bowed to public pressure and agreed to shelve the plans.

But in the run-up to the General Election Mr Smith says his rival has been “dishonest” about his role, claiming that he wanted to close the facility.

The email to a resident, seen by the Daily Echo, has Ms Davis talking about the potential closure and her campaign, before saying: “The Conservative candidate actually advocated closing it and putting it in the back of a pharmacy”.

Daily Echo: Rowenna Davis

Labour candidate Rowenna Davis

Responding, Mr Smith said: “I think it's dishonest and it's disgraceful.

“I am really disappointed in Ms Davis for behaving in this way.

“This is a really important election in Southampton but that doesn't mean standards and decency can be ignored.

“This sort of thing never happened in all the years I opposed John Denham and I am surprised anyone in the Labour Party would let Ms Davis behave like this now."

Ms Davis said: "My Conservative opponent was quoted in this newspaper saying he wanted to squeeze our Bitterne Walk-In Centre into the local pharmacy.

"That would have been an end to the Centre as we know it. Twenty thousand people use the Bitterne Walk-In Centre every year and I’m not sure how you’d fit them into a chemists.

"He may well have been trying to help, but if we had listened to him, the Centre as we know it wouldn’t have been there for pensioners and families last winter."