A left-wing health group claims accident and emergency waiting times have worsened under Conservative governments.

The Socialist Health Association collated NHS waiting times figures for West Herts NHS Trust, to find the waiting times have more regularly exceeded four hours while the Conservative government has been in place.

The figures show the highest number of patients waiting more than four hours under a Labour government was around 2006, where the number of patients hit about 3,000.

This compares to figures released for the end of 2017, which show numbers closer to 8,000 patients waiting longer than four hours.

Watford MP Richard Harrington, said: "I know that West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust is currently incredibly busy, with huge volumes of people attending A&E. But the staff at West Herts are doing a brilliant job.

"They are working very hard to ensure that, despite patients sometimes having to wait longer than anyone would like, every patient is treated with the utmost care and highest quality treatment.

"The fact that the trust was recently taken out of special measures is testament to that."

He added that the Conservative part secured an extra £1million from the Department of Health for additional inpatient beds at Watford General Hospital.

He said: "But more needs to be done, and that’s why I support the redevelopment plans for West Herts, which will give us a bigger and better hospital."

A West Herts NHS Trust spokesman said their A&E department sometimes sees more than 300 patients in a day, which is inkeeping with the national trend and their four hour emergency performance is a reflection of various factors affecting the wider system.

The spokesman added: "We are working with Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and other healthcare partners to improve urgent care services.

"The aim is to make it easier and quicker for patients to get urgent medical attention for the most common ailments. "This will free up A&E to treat the most seriously ill patients."