Leader’s hospital pledge to lift Gosport Tories

10:01am Friday 25th April 2008

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TORY leader David Cameron has offered a lifeline to Gosport's Royal Haslar Hospital.

During a local election campaign visit to the town he pledged a Conservative Government would find a future for the threatened hospital.

Mr Cameron stood on a wall outside the Gosport Conservative Club, rallying the party faithful in a town where the council is hanging in the balance and could fall into Tory hands.

He pledged that if the Tories won the next General Election there would be an immediate review of the role of Gosport's Royal Hospital Haslar.

Mr Cameron said that it needed to cover Haslar's NHS future and also as a place where service personnel wounded in war zones, like Iraq and Afghanistan, could be rehabilitated.

The announcement came as a boost to Gosport's Tory group leader Mark Hook who is fighting to seize power from the Labour and Lib Dem-run council.

Conservatives were rolling out political heavy weights as they tried to recapture votes in once true blue heartlands.

Former Tory leader Michael Howard was at Hedge End as the guest of honour at a St George's Dinner organised by the Eastleigh Conservative Association.