NHS will be sold off to Trump in trade deal, say Scots party leaders
Nicola Sturgeon will today warn that the future of Scotland’s NHS could end up in “Donald Trump’s hands” if the Tories win the election.
But the SNP leader has come under fire from Labour leader Richard Leonard over her management of the NHS north of the Border amid long patient waits, bed blocking and major hospital building failures. Ms Sturgeon will visit a pharmacy in Burnside, near Glasgow, before hitting the campaign trail in Dumfries.
“Boris Johnson is desperate to do a post-brexit trade deal with Donald Trump, which will undoubtedly include prescription drug prices and access to the NHS,” Ms Sturgeon will say.
“The threat to our NHS shows why Scotland needs to escape the Westminster chaos and choose our own future.
“Far from getting Brexit done, if the Tories get to pass their deal, it will just be the start of the damage to our economy and public services like our precious NHS.
“The future of Scotland’s NHS must be in Scotland’s hands – not in Boris Johnson’s and Donald Trump’s – and in the coming weeks we will highlight how votes for the SNP can protect Scotland’s NHS.”
Mr Leonard will say Ms Sturgeon has fallen “asleep at the wheel” in a speech to party activists outside Monklands Hospital over missed targets that ministers have set for themselves.
Capital funding for health services has suffered a 63 per cent drop in the past decade under the SNP, resulting in a £914 million backlog of maintenance issues across a deteriorating NHS estate.
“You can only trust Labour withthenhs,thetorieswould sell it off to Trump and Nicola Sturgeon has fallen asleep at the wheel,” he will say.
“Boris Johnson wants to sell off control of the NHS to Donald Trump as part of a postbrexit trade deal, which would be catastrophic for Scotland’s health service. The NHS is the jewel in the crown of Britain’s public services. It is unforgivable that Nicola Sturgeon’s government has allowed a potential £1.8 billion black hole to open up.”