• Disrupting Power Since 2015
  • Donate
  • Login
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
  • Login
  • Register
Canary
MEDIA THAT DISRUPTS
  • News
    • UK
    • Global
    • Analysis
    • Trending
  • Editorial
  • Features
    • Features
    • Environment
    • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Money
    • Science
    • Business
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Sport & Gaming
  • Media
    • Video
    • Cartoons
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
MANAGE SUBSCRIPTION
SUPPORT
  • News
    • UK
    • Global
    • Analysis
    • Trending
  • Editorial
  • Features
    • Features
    • Environment
    • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Money
    • Science
    • Business
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Sport & Gaming
  • Media
    • Video
    • Cartoons
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
Canary
No Result
View All Result

Theresa May’s car crash interview probably just lost the Conservatives a seat in parliament [VIDEO]

Kerry-Anne Mendoza by Kerry-Anne Mendoza
19 June 2022
in Health, Other News & Features, UK
Reading Time: 3 mins read
170 2
A A
0
Home Other News & Features Health
319
SHARES
2.5k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Theresa May made a 700-mile round trip to Copeland this week, in efforts to win her party some votes in a crucial by-election. Instead, she ended up crashing and burning in an interview with ITV – and it may have cost the party any hope of victory.

Awkward

Theresa May arrived in Copeland to shore up the Conservative vote. But her shambolic appearance may well harm the party. The Prime Minister seemed unaware of the key issues driving the campaign, and made a monumental gaffe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNEv5AVu6r0

The Prime Minister was asked directly about the central issue of the Copeland campaign no fewer than four times in an interview with ITV. And each time she dodged the question a little more awkwardly. With friends like these, Conservative hopeful Trudy Harrison has no need for enemies.

The issues

The Copeland by-election has become a battle over maternity care.

The NHS already needed an additional 2,600 midwives in 2015. But decisions from Downing Street and the Treasury have exacerbated the issue. There is now a 3,500 shortfall between the number of midwives NHS England needs and the number it has. The government has cut the bursaries that supported student midwives, the training budgets for maternity staff, and the budgets for most basic care. This has left the service understaffed, and remaining maternity care staff undertrained, underpaid and overworked.

This national issue has become a local issue for voters in Copeland. West Cumberland Hospital will lose its consultant-led maternity service as a result. This will leave expectant mothers needing to travel 40 miles to Carlisle for emergency care. Last year, midwives at the hospital wrote an open letter to Stephen Eames, the Chief Executive of North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust. It stated that as a result of the cuts:

Mothers will die. Babies will die. Babies will be brain damaged. Families will be traumatised.

Labour’s candidate for the by-election has promised to save the hospital services. Gillian Troughton, a former NHS doctor, made her promise at a campaign event outside the hospital, saying:

The Tories want to downgrade our maternity ward, and close our A&E and children’s ward. The idea of a woman in labour having to travel over 40miles up the road to Carlisle to see a doctor, is frankly dangerous. I should know, I’ve driven that journey myself, as a blue-light ambulance driver.

The Tories’ are putting our NHS at risk. Their plans for West Cumbria are about costs, not care.

This forced local Conservative Trudy Harrison to promise to stand against the cuts, in contrast to Conservative policy in Westminster.

Out of touch and out of time

In stark contrast, Theresa May’s evasiveness exposed Harrison’s promise as nothing more than tokenism. The Conservative Party and its Prime Minister have no intention of reversing their cuts to maternity services, in Copeland or anywhere. While May has embarrassed her party, she has provided an inadvertent service to voters. Vote blue, get mean.

Get Involved!

– The Copeland by-election takes place on 23 February 2017. Find out more here.

Featured image via Screengrab

Share128Tweet80
Previous Post

A looming Brexit bombshell is about to make many people VERY angry

Next Post

I was spied upon, and the latest police attempt to obstruct justice is an absolute disgrace [OPINION]

Next Post
I was spied upon, and the latest police attempt to obstruct justice is an absolute disgrace [OPINION]

I was spied upon, and the latest police attempt to obstruct justice is an absolute disgrace [OPINION]

NHS under the Tories

More mental health patients are at risk of death, for one simple reason

The Editor of The New Statesman gets caught telling porkies… during an interview about fake news

The Editor of The New Statesman gets caught telling porkies... during an interview about fake news

Supreme Court President quotes Spiderman to slam Brexit media. These reactions are truly bonkers [VIDEO, TWEETS]

Supreme Court President quotes Spiderman to slam Brexit media. These reactions are truly bonkers [VIDEO, TWEETS]

Theresa May claims she’s ridding the police of racism, but these figures show the shocking reality

Theresa May claims she's ridding the police of racism, but these figures show the shocking reality

Is the Growth of the Online Gambling Sector in 2025 Sustainable or a Bubble Ready to Burst?
Sport & Gaming

Is the Growth of the Online Gambling Sector in 2025 Sustainable or a Bubble Ready to Burst?

by Nathan Spears
20 May 2025
Thomas Corker
News

A memorial to a slave trader in Falmouth just got an honest heritage sign

by The Canary
19 May 2025
Trump looking shocked
Analysis

Uproar over Trump’s latest move which could bring about a 2008-style financial crash

by Steve Topple
19 May 2025
The Elite London was disrupted by Climate Resistance
News

Climate Resistance just disrupted luxury lifestyle event that asked attendees to fly in by private jet

by The Canary
19 May 2025
Activist holding Irish flag reading "US miliarty out of neutral Ireland" in front of a plane with red paint sprayed across the cockpit Palestine Action
News

Palestine Action just grounded a US military plane supplying arms to Israel

by The Canary
19 May 2025
  • Contact
  • About & FAQ
  • Get our Daily News Email
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy

The Canary
PO Box 71199
LONDON
SE20 9EX

Canary Media Ltd – registered in England. Company registration number 09788095.

For guest posting, contact [email protected]

For other enquiries, contact: [email protected]

The Canary is owned and run by independent journalists and volunteers, NOT offshore billionaires.

You can write for us, or support us by making a regular or one-off donation.

© Canary Media Ltd 2024, all rights reserved | Website by Monster | Hosted by Krystal | Privacy Settings

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • UK
    • Global
    • Analysis
    • Trending
  • Editorial
  • Features
    • Features
    • Environment
    • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Money
    • Science
    • Business
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Sport & Gaming
  • Media
    • Video
    • Cartoons
  • Opinion

© 2023 Canary - Worker's co-op.

Before you go, have you seen...?

Sport & Gaming
Nathan Spears

Is the Growth of the Online Gambling Sector in 2025 Sustainable or a Bubble Ready to Burst?

Thomas Corker
News
The Canary

A memorial to a slave trader in Falmouth just got an honest heritage sign

Trump looking shocked
Analysis
Steve Topple

Uproar over Trump’s latest move which could bring about a 2008-style financial crash

The Elite London was disrupted by Climate Resistance
News
The Canary

Climate Resistance just disrupted luxury lifestyle event that asked attendees to fly in by private jet

ADVERTISEMENT
Sport & Gaming
Nathan Spears

Is the Growth of the Online Gambling Sector in 2025 Sustainable or a Bubble Ready to Burst?

Money
Nathan Spears

How to Build a Smart Private Markets Investment Platform

Business
Nathan Spears

How Working with a Logistics Company Boosts the Efficiency of Businesses