Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has ruled out spending money on new hospitals in SW London, according to his party colleague.

Chris Grayling, MP for Epsom and Ewell, was reacting to the idea of a 'super-hospital' replacing Epsom and St Helier hospitals.

From this morning: Campaigners sceptical on future of hospitals as major NHS review prepares to publish next report

Feb 2014: Shock announcement reveals £219m redevelopment of St Helier Hospital 'probably' off the table

When the idea was leaked by consultants chatting on a train before the election, Mr Hunt said he opposed the proposal. He has now apparently gone further, explaining that money was a key consideration.

Mr Grayling said: “When this all blew up during the General Election, Jeremy Hunt was very clear that the Government was not going to spend any money on building new hospitals in south west London.

“The thing that was wrong with [previous cost-cutting review] Better Services Better Value was it was rushed ahead without people asking the question of where is the money going to come from.

"You have to have a budget to do all the capital work which would go into moving patients to one hospital from another.

“Before anyone starts wasting any more money on yet another review looking to reconfigure services, they have got to have the money and the money isn’t there to do it.

“Since this happened, we’ve had the General Election, Jeremy Hunt is still the Health Secretary and he was very clear that money is not going to be provided to build a new hospital in south west London.

"Spending money on yet another review is completely pointless.

"Epsom and St Helier trust should do what it said it was going to do two months ago and look at integration between community, primary and mental healthcare to make things more affordable.”

Asked about Epsom and St Helier chief executive Daniel Elkeles recent interview explaining why the buildings review was taking place (''Traingate' - Hospital chief exec says "I don't think we misled anyone" over leak of super-site plans') Mr Grayling said: "There’s a saying – when in a hole, stop digging. It seems he still has his spade."