HUDDERSFIELD health campaigners have criticised the way they say they were treated by Colne Valley MP Kali Mountford.

Thousands of people worried about the future of the National Health Service joined up in London on Wednesday.

There were protests and many lobbied their Members of Parliament.

But a delegation from the Colne Valley say they were snubbed by their MP.

However, Ms Mountford has hit back at her critics, saying they had not told her they would be coming.

"When people don't make an appointment to see me I can't always just drop everything else," she said.

In a letter to the Examiner Jean Johnson, Christine Broadbent, Mick Clark, Anne Welburn, the Rev Mike Smith and Diane Smith write: "We were very disappointed because we had great difficulty seeing our MP, Ms Kali Mountford.

"She refused to come down when we had her paged, so we followed a hint from friends and discovered her outside a committee room.

"She was extremely unhelpful when we eventually found her. She did not take time to listen to any of our arguments."

Ms Mountford told the Examiner she did not know the group were coming.

She added: "They had not made an appointment and I had a packed diary of meetings.

"I was hurrying to the next one."