Dossier on US-UK deal fuels NHS row

Labour and the Tories have been involved in a furious clash over claims the Conservatives would put the NHS “up for sale” in a postbrexit trade deal with the US.

Jeremy Corbyn dramatically produced what he said were 451 pages of “uncensored” government documents which, he said, showed the NHS would be “on the table” in talks with the Trump administration.

But the Tories hit back, accusing the Labour leader of “out-and-out lying” and taking passages out of context from docu

ments which had been available online for weeks. Boris Johnson described the claims as “total nonsense” and said: “The NHS is not on the table in any way.”

Mr Corbyn made his claim at a press conference in London where he produced what he said was the full version of papers previously only released in redacted form.

He said the documents – covering six rounds of discussions between British and US officials – showed the talks were at a “very advanced stage”.

He claimed that on medicine pricing, the two sides had already concluded discussions on lengthening patents.

“Longer patents can only mean one thing – more expensive drugs. Lives will be put at risk as a result of this,” he said.

He added: “We have now got evidence that under Boris Johnson the NHS is on the table... He tried to cover it up in a secret agenda and today it has been exposed.”

The documents also reveal pressure on US trade negotiators to relax food standards and environmental restrictions. The US trade team “wondered if there would be an interest in bringing [pathogen reduction treatment] back post Eu-exit” – a reference to chlorine-washed chicken.

American officials offered to share “public lines on chlorine-washing chicken” for the UK to use in the media, and suggested a transatlantic “regulator

to regulator dialogue” on the issue. They also reportedly told British counterparts that they “view the introduction of warning labels as harmful rather than as a step to public health”.

UK calls for climate change targets to form part of a deal are reported to have been shut down by Washington. The US “responded emphatically that climate change is the most political [sensitive] question for the US, saying it is a ‘lightning rod issue’, mentioning that as of 2015, [US trade representatives] are bound by Congress not to include mention of greenhouse gas emission reductions in trade agreements… this ban would not be lifted any time soon.”