Pensioner receives flowers and praise after confronting "smug" Andrew Lansley (From Your Local Guardian)

Pensioner receives flowers and praise after confronting "smug" Andrew Lansley

4:21pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012 in Top Stories By Alexandra Rucki

A campaigning pensioner has received flowers and praise after confronting "smug" Health Secretary Andrew Lansley outside Downing Street on Monday.

June Hautot, 75, of Tooting, harangued Mr Lansley as he arrived for a meeting with the Prime Minister and health chiefs to discuss the future of the NHS.

The Keep NHS Public campaigner was angry the government only invited a minority of professional NHS workers, with groups critical of the proposed reforms left out of the negotiations.

The confrontation made national and international headlines, including the front page picture on the Guardian, and Mrs Hautot described the media attention as "unbelievable."

Mrs Hautot said: "I am just happy for the exposure, because we have been trying to raise the profile of Keep NHS Public, still it is sad it had to get to this before it got anything in the media.

"I'm glad I spoke to him because he looked so smug. I said: "You had better wait, there is a lot of people waiting for treatment, they won't be able to afford it."

"He said we are not privatising, I said: "Codswallop, you are."

"He is a nasty man. He thinks like a Tory - they only care about privatisation and their friends in business."

The retired trade union rep said a lot of people were sending her their praise and she has been sent bunches of flowers from fellow campaigners.

Her outburst has helped to raise the profile of the proposed NHS reforms, which could see hospitals making 49 per cent more profits from private patients.

She said: "There should be fair healthcare for all. If this happens it will be the end of the NHS, there will be nothing and we can't afford to lose something so precious."

The widow has campaigned on a wide variety of causes over the years alongside her late husband, who worked as a theatre porter in Wandsworth hospitals.

She has also raised awareness of the future of Battersea Power Station, pensions, open cast mining and last autumn she took part in a protest outside the leader of the council's house against plans to evict council tenants convicted on riot related offences.