UK's weekly fee to EU could pay for a new Shropshire hospital, says Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski

Mr Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, is campaigning for the United Kingdom to leave the EU, and in an open letter to the Shropshire Star, has urged people to consider alternative uses for the money the country pays as part of membership.

The Conservative said: "In one week of not paying our £350 million fees to EU after Brexit we would have enough to build a new hospital in Shropshire or certainly enough to make both hospitals the best in Europe in terms of equipment and resources.

"Given the extraordinary difficulties and worries people currently have about the reconfiguration of A&E services in Shropshire that is really something to think about in the run up to referendum day."

The MP has also cited the current costs of providing adult social care in Shropshire as another example of alternative uses for finance.

He said: "The amount of money Britain sends to Europe every week is staggering and not sustainable given the black holes emerging in local government finance and spiralling costs of adult social care services.

"I am pleased that recently I helped to secure an extra £9 million for Shropshire Council in the local government settlement but quite frankly it is a drop in the ocean compared to what the council is facing in terms of rising costs of looking after a much faster than national average growth of senior citizens in our county."

Mr Kawczynski has been campaigning on the issue for several weeks and when he made his announcement, revealed that his main concern had been the loss of British sovereignty and the lack of democratic accountability to EU law.

He said: "I urge constituents to vote for Brexit for many reasons associated with sovereignty and accountability. The most important factor however going forward is to ensure that British taxpayers' money is spent and prioritised on British public services rather than European ones."

Mr Kawczynski's letter comes on the same day that the Prime Minister, David Cameron, said that the UK would be safer by remaining in the EU.