By William Pickworth
November 22 2019, 14.55
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Tom Brake vowed to continue to safeguard the future of St Helier Hospital as he continues election campaigning in Carshalton and Wallington.
Mr Brake, the Liberal Democrat candidate, has represented the constituency as its MP since May 1997.
He holds a majority of 1,369 and is expected to face a challenge from Conservative candidate Elliot Colburn.
Mr Brake said: “St Helier has had some investment recently but frankly we need to see investment of the order of another £400-500 million.
“Without a doubt it is my greatest achievement as an MP here to have avoided the closure of our local hospital.
“We have fought very successfully to ensure that the hospital continues to operate, and my priority objective of this parliament is to ensure that the investment that has been promised is actually delivered.”
Mr Brake has also helped improve transport links for the area.
He said: “We’ve got the misfortune of having Southern as our local train provider and frankly the services have been appalling in recent years.
“But bus services are something that I have had some success on in terms of increasing the frequency.”
A raft of long-serving MPs such as Ken Clarke have announced they will not be standing at the forthcoming election and this is something which Mr Brake regrets.
He added: “There is no doubt that we do need a renewal in Parliament, but we are going to lose some very significant players.”
Mr Brake is not only steadfast in his ambitions locally for the upcoming General Election but he also has a clear vision nationally.
He explained: “Nationally I want to see an end to Brexit and I want the UK government and the country as a whole to be able to start concentrating on the things that really do matter.
“Issues such as the NHS, increasing police numbers, making sure our schools’ are properly funded and tackling poor air quality.”
