Labour: 'No false hope over Kettering Hospital'

The Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said he will not give people "false hope" about when they will benefit from a long-awaited hospital rebuild.

The Kettering General Hospital (KGH) project, in Northamptonshire, is one of 40 promised by the previous government which are now being reviewed by the chancellor.

The Labour MP for Kettering, Rosie Wrighting, said it was clear the Conservative government had committed to building the hospital without setting aside enough funding.

The former Conservative MP for the constituency, Philip Hollobone, said claims the funding never existed were "not credible".

When Boris Johnson was prime minister, he pledged to build 40 new hospitals within a decade.

One of them was KGH, which desperately needed a rebuild.

During the 2024 election campaign, Labour said it was "committed to delivering the New Hospitals Programme".

After Labour came to power in July, the chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a review of the programme, saying the previous government had not set aside enough funding to pay for it.

Following a meeting with Mr Streeting, Kettering MP Ms Wrighting said: "Kettering desperately needs the rebuild but we also need honesty over how it will be funded and when we can expect it to be completed.

"The Tories have left a black hole in our finances and cynically committed to rebuilding KGH without committing anywhere close to the funding required to deliver it."

She said she would "continue to campaign to get KGH rebuilt as soon as possible.”

Mr Streeting said: “Rosie has been a tireless campaigner for the KGH rebuild and has made a strong case for this hospital to be a priority.

"However, unlike the previous Government, I am not prepared to mislead local people over the cost and offer false hope about how soon they will benefit from the facilities they deserve.

He said he was committed to a "realistic timetable" for the rebuild.

Philip Hollobone, who was the Conservative MP for Kettering when the New Hospitals Programme was announced, said: "Despite Labour saying during the campaign that the KGH rebuild was safe in its hands, within just 25 days of the election, Labour made a screeching U-turn and placed the whole project in doubt by stalling the plans.

"Local residents will not forget this betrayal.

"Claims by the new Labour government that the money never existed are simply not credible, especially when Wes Streeting confirmed during the campaign that the money was there."

Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.