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Totnes MP Sarah Wollaston has hit out angrily at the ‘crass insensitivity’ of NHS protesters who left a coffin outside her office during their march.

Some 300 people took part in a protest march through the town on Saturday organised by the Save Our Hospital Services protest group. They carried a coffin with them.

They included campaigners from across Devon, angry at the loss of 213 acute and community hospital beds in the county since 2015.

The chairman of the organisation is due to meet Dr Wollaston on Friday to voice their concerns and present a 4,000 plus signature petition.

Dr Wollaston, chair of the all party health select committee, had previously said she would not be able to attend the protest and she was not at her office in Station Road on Saturday when protesters marched past, and left a coffin outside.

In a reference to the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, Dr Wollaston said: “The crass insensitivity of delivering a coffin effigy to a woman MP seems to have passed some people by.

“My office has already been repeatedly targeted with aggressive vandalism by those who can’t abide reasoned debate and want to make it harder for people to access their MP.

“My message to Labour, who were part of Saturday’s march and encouraged people to join it, since sadly this does not appear to be obvious, is that you cannot preach about ‘gentler politics’ and allow someone to leave a coffin at my door.

(Image: Andy Styles)

“On Small Business Saturday of all days, local businesses deserved better than a poor taste gesture parading a coffin up the High Street risking driving shoppers elsewhere in the run up to Christmas. Before targeting me in such a vile way, those responsible might have bothered to look at my work as chair of the Select Committee campaigning on NHS and Social Care funding or my work on Universal Credit reform.”