Wagging her finger at the Labour leader, she let fly with an emotional outburst during his visit to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Edgbaston, Birmingham.

She complained that her partner Keith Sedgwick, who is being treated for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of lymphatic cancer, had been forced to wait 50 minutes before a bed was found in the wrong sort of ward.

The hospital said he was found a bed in the specialist unit within 24 hours.

But for Ms Storer, 38, the "horrendous 24 hours" was a direct result of the Labour Government and the failure to provide more nurses and more hospital beds.

Lacking facilities

"All he kept saying was they're going to do better, they are trying," she said after confronting the prime minister.

"But he has been trying for years in my opinion and they still haven't got it right.

"All these people are suffering. He keeps promising things but he is not getting the hospitals the money that they need to get the facilities they need.

Sharron Storer: They still haven't got it right

Speaking from his hospital bed, Mr Sedgwick, 48, from Hall Green, Birmingham, said conditions at the Queen Elizabeth were appalling, but it was not a unique case.

"Sharron speaks on behalf of every hospital in the country, not just this one," he said.

Abstaining

He applauded his partner's action and called on Mr Blair to visit the "real world".

"It's about time he was told some truths rather than hiding behind shiny suits and Jaguar cars," he said.

"Monday afternoon was terrible from the moment I went down to the admissions ward. It's just the conditions."

Ms Storer said her partner would probably stay in the hospital for the rest of the week and they hoped he would not show signs of any new infection.

Ms Storer later said she would not be voting on 7 June.