HEALTH campaigner Dr Richard Taylor obliterated the opposition in a landslide General Election victory in Wyre Forest.

The retired hospital consultant recorded an unprecedented win to become the first independent to be elected on a local issue in the modern era.

The crowd at the Glades Arena in Kidderminster gasped in awe at the monumental 28,487 votes polled for the 66-year-old Health Concern candidate.

District folk snubbed traditional parties to give Dr Taylor an awesome 58 per cent of the vote to send a message from the heart of England to the seat of Government.

A typically understated Dr Taylor was more bedside manner than brash bravura as he reflected on his stunning triumph within minutes of the result at 2.30am last Thursday.

He said: "This is complete justification for the struggle we've put up for three-and-a-half-years, keeping going this long against all the powers of spin and secrecy.

"I am absolutely delighted the people have shown the Government and the major political parties that they cannot be disregarded - that democracy does count."

The consultant has led the campaign to save and then restore services to Kidderminster Hospital, which lost its blue-light A&E department and in-patient services, under Worcestershire Health Authority's county shake-up.

The downgrading was rubber-stamped by Health Secretary Alan Milburn and endorsed by outgoing MP and Government minister David Lock, who polled 10,857 - a loss of 15,986 votes from the last campaign when he ousted Conservative Anthony Coombs and ended half a century of Tory domination of the Wyre Forest seat.

This time the Conservatives trailed in third with Mark Simpson polling 9,350 - a loss of 10,547 on the 1997 Tory figure.

Dr Taylor said the astonishing result was a testament to the fortitude of district folk who refused to buckle under Government policy.

He said: "The message to the Government is you cannot ride roughshod over a local community's feelings without rebellion.

"They have used the ballot box - the only weapon left to people who have been disregarded."

And he poured scorn on the notion he was an out-of-touch medical dinosaur campaigning on a single-issue.

He said: "It is a local issue that's got me to this position but I really believe our councillors have shown we are not a single issue party.

"Our councillors have run the authority effectively for two years.

"We've got many issues to deal with but the over-riding one is the need for rational and open debate on the future of health care."