Professor who backed Tory hospital closure is former Labour spin doctor

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Under fire: Tories are calling for an inquiry into John Underwood's actions.

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt was last night at the centre of a row over cronyism amid fresh claims that Tory constituencies were deliberately being targeted for savage hospital cuts.

A former Labour spin doctor earned an estimated £100,000 for writing an independent report that endorsed the closure of a popular hospital in a Conservative area.

Ex-TV presenter John Underwood was once Labour's director of communications and later became chairman of a Left-wing think-tank.

However, The Mail on Sunday can disclose he has reinvented himself as an 'independent expert on engagement and consultation' and calls himself Professor Underwood.

He was commissioned by Labour-appointed health chiefs in Hertfordshire to report on their plan to axe the hospital in Tory-held Hemel Hempstead with wards being moved to Watford, a Labour seat.

In his report, Mr Underwood poured scorn on the well supported local protests against the cuts, saying 'many respondents did not fully understand the options being placed in front of them'. And he challenged the authenticity of the 'concerted campaign' in Hemel Hempstead.

The 65-page dossier, entitled Delivering A Healthy Future In West Hertfordshire, is described as an 'independent summary'.

However, it endorses - without reservation - the cuts planned by the local hospital trust. And nowhere in the report is it mentioned that Mr Underwood, who has been closely involved with a media studies course at Plymouth University, is in fact director of the Clear consultancy.

This is a public relations company that specialises in 'crisis management' - helping clients weather the media 'storm'.

Nor does his hospital report state he was also once Neil Kinnock's media chief and, under Tony Blair, chaired the New Labour think-tank Catalyst Forum.

Mr Underwood's time as a top Labour staffer in the early Nineties coincided with the period when Ms Hewitt was an influential adviser to the party leadership. His PR company played a key role in the Labour-led campaign to ban foxhunting.

Local hospital bosses - who are Whitehall appointees - are legally obliged to obtain independent reports before they can go ahead with any major cuts.

But the Tories have called into doubt the independence of these surveys. Mike Penning, Conservative MP for Hemel Hempstead, said he had been told the contract for the report had not gone out to competitive tender.

He said: "It is entirely inappropriate for anyone with such intimate links to the Labour Party to be asked to conduct supposedly "independent" summaries.

"I will write to the chief executive of the NHS demanding an investigation. I will also be asking if there are any other reports Mr Underwood has written for hospital trusts.

"The way the Government is closing hospitals in Conservative areas and moving the facilities to seats with slender Labour majorities is utterly unacceptable."

Ms Hewitt has already been accused of gerrymandering health cuts to avoid the axe falling in Labour heartlands. Earlier this month she was forced to publish secret 'heat maps' of Britain drawn up by her officials to show which areas were being targeted by closures.

According to recent research, seven out of ten new hospitals have opened in Labour areas.

A spokeswoman for the West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust said: "Clear is an independent consultancy that advises NHS organisations on issues about public consultation. Clear has worked for scores of NHS organisations over the past decade.

"It is a matter of public record that 16 years ago John Underwood worked for the Labour Party for a period of a few months."

Mr Underwood was unavailable for comment.

 

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