SNP MPs will back a bill to ensure the NHS in England remains in public control Nicola Sturgeon said.

The First Minister campaigned in her home town of Irvine and said although health is devolved any SNP MPs elected to Westminster will vote to ensure the NHs is protected north and south of the border.

Ms Sturgeon was backed by a leading health expert, Allyson Pollock, from Queen Mary University of London.

Professor Pollock said: "The NHS in England has been effectively abolished by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and health services are being broken up and put out to tender in the open market.

"Those NHS hospitals which are foundation trusts have been established as 51% public which means that increasingly half the beds, staff and services can be diverted to private patients i.e. those that can afford to pay.

"As the NHS withers away and hospitals and beds close people will find it increasingly difficult to get care, patients are already being turned away from some hospitals and services."

Ms Sturgeon said the NHS was an example where a large block of SNP MPs could benefit people across the UK not just in Scotland and she would work to protect public health services across the UK.

She said: "The NHS is our most precious national resource - yet the current Westminster agenda of austerity, privatisation and patient charging in the NHS is threatening the very foundations of the health service south of the border and is putting funding for the NHS in Scotland at risk.

"That's why the SNP has been clear that our MPs will vote for a Bill to restore England's NHS to its founding principles, ensuring it remains the accountable public service it was always meant to be - and protecting Scotland's health budget in the process."