RE-ELECTED MP Ronnie Cowan has declined to give an undertaking to lobby the Scottish Government to retain the birthing unit at Inverclyde Royal Hospital.

Mr Cowan says he ‘wants to see’ the facility remain but when pressed on the matter he stopped short of giving a guarantee that he would actively campaign for it.

Asked in a wide-ranging Telegraph interview if he would apply pressure on his party colleagues at Holyrood, Mr Cowan said that the matter — which is to be decided upon by NHS bosses next week — came down to available cash.

He stated: “Ultimately, whether we like it or not, it comes down to money and there’s only so much money to go round.

“Whether the Scottish Government is mitigating the bedroom tax or providing free prescriptions, we only get one pot of money and we’ve got to decide where it gets spent.”

Mr Cowan added: “So would I want to see it here? Of course I want to see that. I want the very best we can possibly get.

“But you have to be absolutely practical about it and say, where are we going to spend this money?”

The MP held onto his seat in the general election by only 384 votes, just ahead of Labour’s Martin McCluskey who had campaigned heavily on hospital matters — which are devolved to Edinburgh.

A hung parliament and intense pressure surrounding Prime Minister Theresa May has led to speculation that another poll could take place soon. 

Despite seeing his huge 2015 majority of more than 11,000 almost completely disappear Mr Cowan says he would still be ‘confident’ of victory again if another snap poll were to be called.

He declared that the outcome of this month’s election in Inverclyde was down to a low turnout and a surge in support for ‘the Tories’.

Mr Cowan said: “The vote here went down by ten per cent, which is nearly 6,000 people who didn’t vote who voted two years ago.

“There wasn’t a huge swing towards Labour.

“The Labour vote only went up by just more than 1,100 votes, despite two years of being able to have a pop at me, despite two years of being in a situation where they’ve got nothing to lose and despite them bringing in who they see as a big-hitter.

“And the Tory vote doubled, despite the fact they’d done nothing in the local campaign.

“We know the vote is there, it has to turn out. And it is our job to go back and re-engage with those people because this matters.”

Mr Cowan openly criticised Conservative and Labour voters in the immediate aftermath of his narrow win, suggesting that Labour supporters were ‘confused’ and questioning what Conservative voters were ‘thinking about’.

Following criticism, the MP insists he stands by those comments — and declared that only his party represented Scotland at Westminster.

He is also adamant that Indyref2 was still on track for spring 2019.

Mr Cowan said: “We’ve always said that at the right time we would go back to the people of Scotland, and Brexit, again, is going to have a huge influence on that.

“As far as I know the timescale was spring 2019, and I have not seen anything that would make us change our mind over that.

“It’s still a question of when, not if.”

Asked if he wished to offer an olive branch to Inverclyde’s Labour and Conservative voters in light of letters received by the Telegraph slamming his post-election comments, Mr Cowan said: “As an SNP member and the elected member I’m always curious as to why people voted for other parties.

“So I’m standing by what I said, I don’t know why people are voting Tory, and Labour are only up 1,100 votes.”

The MP said: “I’ll never be able to understand how people here can suddenly find themselves voting Tory.

“Look at what the Tories have done to communities across the UK. 

“They’ve backed the rape clause, they’ve backed the bedroom tax. How can anyone support that?”

Despite losing 21 seats at Westminster — with party deputy leader Angus Robertson and former leader Alex Salmond among the casualties — Mr Cowan argues the SNP are now MORE powerful at Westminster.

Mr Cowan said: “We are actually in a bigger position of power than we were before because there is a weaker government in place.

“And right now they’ve turned to the DUP. How long will that last?

“Some of the policies of the DUP repulse people.”

Mr Cowan added: “Our focus has to be Brexit, not another UK general election, but what can we get for Scotland from Brexit, and with 35 MPs potentially holding more power, that is what our focus is going to be.”

Asked if he would welcome another election, he said: “To be honest, I don’t think it’s going to be good for anyone right now.

“You’re in a situation where we have pretty much suspended our constituency work for four or five weeks and the phones this week have being going absolutely crazy.”

Mr Cowan added: “No, I don’t want another election now because I think it’s the wrong timing.

“I think if you went to the vast majority of the electorate and said, ‘how do you fancy another general election?’, they’d say no.”

Asked if he was confident he would win Inverclyde again if another snap poll were to be called, Mr Cowan said: “More confident.”

He added: “I think we’ve gone down to the wire here and now we have to go and re-engage with the ten per cent who didn’t turn out.

“On the evening we had a bit of a fright and I think the SNP has had a bit of a fright but the fact that Labour only swung up 1,100 votes, I’d be more confident.”