A retired consultant, Taylor resisted NHS bureaucrats and New Labour downgrading Kidderminster General, and took the fight to Westminster
: DAVID BURGES
Dr Richard Taylor, who has died aged 89, was a retired NHS consultant so angered by the downgrading of his hospital, Kidderminster General, that in 2001 he stood for Parliament in protest; not only did he win the Wyre Forest seat, but in 2005 he was re-elected.
A specialist in rheumatology at the hospital for 23 years, Taylor became chairman of its League of Friends after his retirement in 1995.
Two years on, regional NHS chiefs announced that Kidderminster General would be downgraded to a treatment centre, and its A&E department replaced by a minor injuries unit. A Save the Kidderminster Hospital Campaign was launched, with Taylor on its committee, but despite a local outcry the closure went through in 2000.
A former RAF medical officer and a squadron leader in the reserve, Taylor was determined not to let NHS bureaucrats – or the New Labour government – get away with it. And with the 2001 election approaching, he decided to take the fight to Westminster.
: Barry Batchelor/PA Archive
Traditionally, Wyre Forest was a safe Conservative seat, but in 1997 Labour’s David Lock captured it with a 6,946 majority. When the hospital downgrade – the first of a series planned around the country – was proposed, Lock supported it, sticking to his guns as local opposition intensified.
When the election was called, Taylor threw his hat in the ring as the Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern candidate. He stood on a single issue: restoring the A&E department.
The Liberal Democrats, who had come a poor third in 1997, decided not to oppose him, but Lock – an able young lawyer who was already a junior minister – and a new Tory candidate, Mark Garnier, fought the seat hard.
Taylor attracted a host of doorstep campaigners, including former colleagues and hospital staff. And on the night of June 7 2001 he pulled off a staggering victory.
He did not just capture Wyre Forest in one of the biggest shocks of the night; he polled 28,487 votes, defeating Lock by a huge 17,630 majority and halving the Conservative vote.
Arriving at Westminster, he was allocated a seat on the Health Select Committee, the Conservatives giving up one of theirs “to allow him a strong voice on this influential platform”, as Garnier put it. He did not get Kidderminster’s A&E reinstated, but he was always listened to, and probably saved other hospitals from downgrading or closure.
Four years on, Taylor was re-elected as a Health Concern candidate, with 18,739 votes and a majority of 5,250 over Garnier – the first independent MP to retain a seat in a quarter of a century. He again sought re-election in 2010, aged 75, but despite polling almost a third of the vote lost to Garnier by 2,643 votes.
That was not the end for Taylor. In 2015 he stood again, this time for the National Health Action Party, and, although he finished fourth behind the Ukip candidate, 7,211 people voted for him. When he did not contest the 2017 election, Garnier paid tribute to Taylor’s “legacy of decency and example by action. His presence on the stump made for a clean, decent fight on issues, not personalities.”
Richard Thomas Taylor was born on July 7 1934, the son of Thomas Taylor and the former Mabel Hickley. He boarded at The Leys school, Cambridge; Martin Bell, who as an Independent would oust Neil Hamilton at Tatton in 1997, was two years below him.
Taylor went on to Clare College, Cambridge, completed his training at the Westminster Hospital and was then a houseman at the Westminster, Kingston Hospital, and the London Chest Hospital.
In 1960 he was commissioned into the Medical Branch of the RAF. During 1963 he was senior medical officer on the former nuclear-testing site of Christmas Island in the Pacific, then was MO for a year at the RAF Hospital, Halton. He was transferred to the reserve in 1964 and promoted to squadron leader the following year.
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