THE petition to pressure the Government to help the Naomi House hospice in Hampshire has topped 7,500 signatures.

Support for the petition has been pouring in since it emerged that the hospice in Sutton Scotney, near Winchester, was in danger of losing £5.7m invested in a failed Icelandic bank.

Naomi House announced before Christmas that it was cutting its outreach service for local families as a result of the crisis.

The petition, started by Winchester prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate Steve Brine, closes on Monday.

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Mr Brine has written to Harriet Harman, leader of the House of Commons, to ask her to clarify her remarks on BBC’s Any Questions programme, that the Government would not abandon charities left in trouble by the Icelandic banking crisis.

He has invited Ms Harman to sign the petition before it closes to the public.

Mr Brine said: “Along with many local people I was pleased and relieved to hear her reassurances when she visited Winchester for the Any Questions programme last year. Since that time I, as well as MPs from all sides, have sought to clarify what she meant but the response from Government has been disappointing and non-committal to say the least.

“As the petition closes I hope ministers will recognise that more than 7,000 local people have expressed a clear desire for ministers to help Naomi House before services at the hospice are affected even further and the local NHS is left struggling to fill the gap.

“That is why I have now written to Harriet Harman, to seek her support for our campaign and to try one more time to get to the bottom of what she meant when she gave that very clear undertaking on her visit to Winchester.”