NHS ‘up for sale’ under Johnson — Labour leader
Britain’s health system has become a battleground in the country’s election campaign, with opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn accusing Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson of secretly seeking a postBrexit trade deal with the United States that would drive up the cost of drugs and imperil the state-funded service.
With the future of the National Health Service a hot issue in campaigning ahead of the December 12 general election, Corbyn waved 451 pages of documents at a press conference declaring that they covered six rounds of negotiations between US and British negotiators over two years from July 2017. The documents, which have previously been published in redacted form, cover preliminary soundings ahead of formal trade talks that are set to begin once Britain leaves the European Union.
Corbyn said the leaked trade dossier provided proof Johnson was planning to put the National Health Service “up for sale” in trade talks.
“He tried to cover it up in a secret agenda and today it has been exposed,” Corbyn said.
Johnson — who was not prime minister for most of the period when the talks took place — rejected the claim.
“It is a total nonsense, and it is endlessly repeated by the Labour Party, that the NHS is somehow up for sale,” Johnson said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Labour is campaigning heavily on the claim that the overstretched but treasured NHS is not safe in Conservative hands.