Documents, which appear to have been leaked from the trust which runs King George Hospital, show plans to close the A&E department after 8pm.

Ilford North MP Wes Streeting made these allegations in February, which Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) dismissed.

But the Labour MP repeated his claims today, referencing leaked minutes from a BHRUT general surgery business meeting in November last year.

They state: “AJO [Arikoge Ogedegbe, clinical governance lead] confirmed that the A&E department at KGH will definitely be closed. There will be a meeting on December 4 to establish how this will be managed.

“The proposal is that it will close at 8pm and all emergencies will be sent straight to QH [Queen’s Hospital, Romford].”

The minutes also state that the change at the hospital in Barley Lane, Goodmayes, could happen in “one go”.

Mr Streeting commented: “These leaked minutes show that, as I warned earlier this year, the trust is indeed going to start night time closure of King George A&E when they can and that the closure plan is being progressed.

“Given that the latest figures show the immense pressure on A&E locally, we must all accept that the closure threat is real and come together as a community to fight this closure attempt.”

Trust chief executive Matthew Hopkins said BHRUT were looking at ways to make changes to the A&E “in a phased way”.

He said: “That could include closing the emergency department at King George overnight initially.”

But Mr Hopkins explained that would not happen unless reviews showed the change “can be made safely”.

He added this would have to be agreed by the trust at their public board meeting, and Redbridge Clinical Commissioning Group.

Statistics released last week showed that A&E waiting times in February for BHRUT were at their worst level since December 2014.

Only 80.4 per cent of all patients were treated, admitted or discharged within the four hour time limit.