Writer and broadcaster Owen Jones is taking up the fight to save The Whittington Hospital.

The best-selling author, current affairs show regular and Independent columnist, has said it will be a “double whammy” for patients if wards are closed and almost half the hospital site is sold off.

The left-wing campaigner, who wrote Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class, said: “It’s clearly a hospital right in the centre of the community.

“No wonder that back in 2010, thousands of people took to the streets to save its A&E. I am absolutely committed to saving that hospital. It’s part of a wider fight against the attack on the NHS by this government.

“Despite Tory claims that they were going to protect NHS budgets in real terms, we are going to see the biggest squeeze on budgets since the war.”

Mr Jones, who lives in Cheverton Road, Archway, added: “I don’t accept that people can receive care at home. Local authorities are cutting back on carers for the elderly and disabled. So if there are cutbacks at the hospital as well, it will be a double whammy.”

Mr Jones will be speaking at the campaign meeting at Archway Methodist Church Hall on Tuesday. Author Owen Jones puts weight behind battle to save Whittington Hospital