THE town's UKIP branch remains determined to play its part in the party's plans to save the NHS £2billion a year.

UKIP Warrington treasurer, Geoff Siddall, has hit back at claims made by Labour of how Nigel Farage's party intend to privatise the NHS.

Mr Siddall has accused Labour's NHS policy of 'making private companies very rich' and is calling for change.

"Fifty shades of Labour grey areas including their NHS policy - Labour say that UKIP want to privatise the NHS, yet Labour used a Tory scheme to privatise new hospitals and landed the tax payer with massive costs and debts for the next 30 years," he said.

"Labour used the private finance initiative to get private companies to build and run hospitals and other public assets at a huge profit for big businesses.

"As well as paying back seven or eight times what the hospitals actually cost over the 30 years, the taxpayer pays the private companies huge sums to run them.

"In 1999 'New Labour' marked the start of a transition of the NHS from a public sector provider to include the private sector under the disguise of choice and competition.

"No grey areas with UKIP, we will ensure the NHS is free at the point of delivery and ensure GPs' surgeries are open in the evenings where there is demand for it - we will re-introduce the state enrolled nurse and cut down on management within the NHS."

Labour's parliamentary candidate for Warrington South, Nick Bent, has highlighted the importance May's General Election could have on the NHS but has strongly denied UKIP's claims.

"Under the last Labour government, patient satisfaction with the NHS was at a record high," he said.

"Now, under a Tory government, the NHS is in serious trouble and UKIP's extremist policies are to scrap the NHS altogether and to charge people a fee to see their GP - that is what UKIP has said.

"The NHS will only be safe for patients and staff under Labour's positive plan to invest in the NHS, paid for by a 'mansion tax' on homes worth more than £2 million."