A WAR of words has escalated after Save Southend A&E Campaign group accused an MP of blatantly abusing his position.

Mike Fieldhouse, secretary of the group, said James Duddridge claims that campaigners “lied” over a shake up of A&E departments in three Essex hospitals were “disgraceful”.

The Conservative MP for Rochford and Southend East bit back hard by saying Mr Fieldhouse was “an unreconstructed, quasi-Communist and a disgrace to the Labour Party.”

And the MP stood by his claim campaigners wrongly told residents that Southend A&E could close under Success Regime plans, which have since been shelved. Parliamentary privilege rules protect MPs from libel. Mike Fieldhouse, secretary of the Save Southend A&E Campaign, said: “I am astonished and outraged at some of the comments James Duddridge made in Parliament.

“As far as I know, no one has ever suggested our hospital or our A&E was earmarked for closure. Our campaign has been entirely based on public awareness and bringing the facts of the matter to the attention of the people of Southend.” Mr Fieldhouse couldn’t believe the liar claims. He said: “To accuse us in the House of Commons of telling ‘lies’ is a disgraceful abuse of his position, an extraordinary thing to say.”

Mr Fieldhouse confirmed he is a member of the left wing political groups Momentum, but denied it had influenced the A&E campaign.

However, in an attack on Mr Fieldhouses’s motives, Mr Duddridge said: “The Save Southend A&E campaign was packed full of respectable people with legitimate concerns, but the secretary of the group is a hard core Momentum member with an axe to grind. The local Labour Party posted on social media that we would be left with a tin box of Elastoplasts and that’s a lie.

“I’m not using my Parliamentary position if I say the same thing outside Parliament.He is a disreputable individual who wants to take over Labour locally and regionally. He is an unreconstructed, quasi-Communist and a disgrace to the Labour Party. I feel sorry for those caught up in such an evil vortex.”