Eastleigh'S new MP Chris Huhne highlighted the need to replace local jobs and the problems of the National Health Service in Hampshire in his maiden speech in the House of Commons.

Mr Huhne, pictured, was the first opposition MP to make a maiden speech on the first day of the debate on the Queen's speech.

In what is traditionally a speech devoted to local issues of the constituencies of new MPs, Mr Huhne stressed the need for jobs to replace those being axed at Alstom and Manor Bakeries.

Eastleigh's giant railway works, currently run by Alstom, is to close with the loss of 550 jobs by the end of the year, while another 423 posts will be lost when Manor Bakeries closes the Mr Kipling factory in the same timescale.

He also referred to the funding crisis in the NHS and said he would seek proper justification for the government's plans to spend a fifth less per head on health in the Eastleigh and Test Valley South Primary Care Trust than the national average - and 40 per cent less than funding per head in the North East.

"We may be relatively affluent, but we also have higher costs. The business of government is not merely to provide redistribution to the least well-off, important though that is, but also to provide public goods for all those, rich and poor, who need them," he commented.

Local health trusts, he said, were running a substantial cumulative deficit and added: "Although there have been substantial increases in funding, for which the government deserves credit, they have not kept up with the equally substantial increases in costs due, for example, to the junior doctors' new contract.

"As a result, both the finances and other stress indicators, such as accident and emergency waiting times, ward closures and the need to fill nursing vacancies temporarily through agency nurses, all suggest that there is pain to come."

Mr Huhne also said it was crucial to maintain the distinct identities of the different villages and towns within the constituency, and argued that development should be limited to brownfield sites and existing urban areas.