Guildford MP tells PM to spend our taxes on local hospitals not arms trade subsidies

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 27th Oct 2004

In Parliament today, Sue Doughty MP called on the Prime Minister to use tax payers' money to support local hospitals, not arms sales.

Sue said:

"The Prime Minster completely failed to answer my question. He dodged the issue of arms subsidies from the public purse and he dodged the issue of our local hospitals.

"The government has not succeeded in controlling the end use of British arms components, so they are ending up in conflict zones and human rights crisis zones. This is subsided out of our taxes to the tune of at least £450m a year.

"At a time when local hospitals providing vital services like Milford and Cranleigh are threatened with closure due to lack of NHS commitment, people would far rather see our taxes spent to save them than to fuel conflicts overseas."