Last night, MP’s voted against an amendment to the Government’s Trade Bill which intended to protect the NHS and publicly funded health and care services from any being controlled from outside the UK.
Originally put forward by Caroline Lucas, a Green Party MP, and further supported by Labour leader Keir Starmer, was voted against by the parliamentary majority of the Conservatives, with the final count 340 to 251.
Lucas’ proposal, New Clause 17, was meant to protect the NHS from any future trade deals, something which the UK’s health leaders have strongly opposed.
In addition to protecting the NHS from foreign control, the amendment also contained numerous other measures to protect the NHS, including:
- Ensuring the ability to provide a “comprehensive and publicly funded health service free at the point of delivery” was not compromised by any future trade deal
- Protecting hard-working NHS staff from having their wages or rights slashed by any future trade deal
- Protecting the quality and safety of health and care services
- Regulating the control and pricing of medicines
- Protecting patient data from being sold off
- Protecting the NHS from so-called investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS) – clauses which allow foreign investors to sue national governments for any measures which harm their profits.
It is feared that this could lead to the Conservatives were planning to include the NHS in a future trade agreement with the US – something which was voiced by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as early as 2018.
Please find a full list of who voted against this new clause here.
