SHADOW Health Minister Andy Burnham will visit Darwen on Saturday to talk about the problems facing the NHS.

The Leigh MP will accompany Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate at next year’s General Election Will Straw during an event at Darwen Aldridge Community Academy, from 11am.

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Members of the public will have the opportunity to listen to Mr Burnham and put their questions to him.

The meeting will be followed by a walk around Darwen Market talking to shoppers in the town centre.

The event is part of one of Mr Straw’s main pre-election campaign in which he has been gathering signatures for a petition calling for an end to the privatisation of the NHS.

Mr Straw said: “Hundreds of people in Darwen signed a petition calling on Jake Berry to vote for a new law to stop the privatisation of the NHS which is putting profits ahead of patients.

“Under this Government’s reorganisation of the NHS, more and more services – including the MRI and ultrasound departments at Darwen Health Centre – are being carried out by private companies.

“To discuss these and other concerns about the NHS, I have invited Labour’s shadow health secretary, AndyBurnham, to come to Darwen for a public meeting to talk about the problems facing our health service and what Labour would do to save the NHS.”