A Midland health campaigner is to challenge a sitting Tory MP in the fall-out from the Stafford Hospital scandal.

Karen Howell, a founder member of the Support Stafford Hospital Campaign, was among a dozen candidates unveiled by the National Health Action Party.

The party was launched at the end of 2012 by doctors, nurses, health workers and campaigners in protest at the Government's NHS reforms and claims of creeping privatisation. Its candidates will demand an end to NHS "privatisation" and A&E and hospital closures.

Ms Howell, who will contest the Stafford seat currently occupied by Conservative Jeremy Lefroy, said: "It is time to stand and fight for justice for the people in Stafford and our communities.

"I am not a politician, but over the past three years, as a founder member of the Support Stafford Hospital campaign, I have encountered a stubborn refusal to listen to the public from people who are supposed to represent us.

"They ignored the voices of 50,000 people who marched to retain vital services at Stafford and to support its dedicated hard-working staff.

"The downgrading of Stafford and other hospitals has been as much an attack on democracy and people’s rights, as it has been an assault on the NHS.

"Before the last general election David Cameron promised that there would be no top-down reorganisation of our health service. Yet that's precisely what his government have done, closing life-saving services across the country without even asking for our opinion, let alone our permission."

The party is also contesting seats occupied by health secretary Jeremy Hunt, work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.