Sir Edward Leigh called on the Government to work with BT and local health authorities to fit out disused phone boxes with life-saving medical equipment.

Pointing out that ambulance response times in remote rural villages is necessarily long, the Conservative MP pointed out that BT have been decommissioning red telephone boxes up and down the country.

"Why not fit them out with defibrillators so that rural villages across Britain are better equipped to deal with cardiac arrest?," Sir Edward suggested.