SOUTHEND West Conservative candidate Sir David Amess has defied his own party’s wishes by announcing he is “totally committed” to opposing plans to downgrade the A&E department at Southend Hospital.

Sir David even announced his dedication “to improving” the Southend Hospital A&E at a public meeting held at Iveagh Hall in Leigh Road.

During the drop-in session, Sir David, who has been the area’s MP for 20-years, was handed a petition entitled “Save Southend A&E!”

He signed the petition in front of the 40 people in attendance.

In a statement released to Echo, Sir David’s spokesman said: “He stated that if he was successfully returned to Parliament as the MP for Southend West, he would immediately contact and speak to the Health Secretary and the Chief Executive of NHS England.

“(This would be) to express not just on a personal level but on behalf of local residents his total opposition to any downgrading to the service.”

It comes after nearly 1,000 campaigners took to the streets to protest against plans to downgrade Southend’s A&E in the town on Saturday.

The march from Pier Hill to the end of the High Street, six weeks in the making, was organised by the Save Southend A&E campaign group, which welcomed Sir David’s support.

A spokesman said: “Today has been a momentous step forward following our hugely-successful and well attended #SaveSouthend rally on Saturday.

“Sir David Amess, Conservative (candidate) for Southend West has signed the Save Southend A&E petition.

“We are looking forward to Sir David working with the Save Southend team in order to see through his pledge to keep full 24 hour 999 ambulance admissions permanently at Southend A&E.”

The petition, which includes fighting to keep full 24/7 blue light emergency admissions at Southend, has now attracted 25,000 signatures.

Last week hundreds of campaigners joined forces to have their say on the controversial plans.

Other parliamentary candidates also turned up to voiced their support for the campaign.

Labour’s Julian Ware-Lane and Ashley Dalton, Lib Dem Peter Gwizdala , Independent Ron Woodley and Simon Cross, from the Green Party, all attended the heated meeting at the Royal British Legion building in Northview Drive. Under the success regime plans, Basildon will become the main emergency hospital for the area. Southend and Broomfield, in Chelmsford, will be downgraded to take less serious emergencies.