NICOLA Sturgeon has told the US president Scotland’s NHS will “never be on the table” when it comes to trade talks.
The First Minister was responding to comments made by Donald Trump at a joint press conference with the outgoing Prime Minister, as part of the president’s three-day state visit.
As thousands of protesters marched through the streets of London, the second day of the US state visit to the UK saw Trump and First Lady Melania visit 10 Downing Street, where they spent time with Theresa May and her husband, Philip, before the two leaders held a press conference.
On the subject of a post-Brexit trade deal between Britain and the US, Trump said the NHS would be on the table during talks: “I think everything with a trade deal is on the table.
“When you’re dealing in trade everything is on the table so NHS or anything else, a lot more than that, but everything will be on the table, absolutely.”
May added: “But the point in making trade deals is of course that both sides negotiate and come to an agreement about what should or should not be in that trade deal for the future.”
Sturgeon hit out at the comments from the two leaders, tweeting that the health service in Scotland should never be used as a bargaining chip.
“As @ScotGovFM my view is clear – Scotland’s NHS is not and must never be ‘on the table’ in a trade negotiation with President Trump, or anyone else for that matter,” she wrote.
The GMB union also responded to the comments, saying May had “insulted our hardworking NHS workers on a scale never seen before”.
Its national secretary, Rehana Azam, said: “You only have to look to America to see how big greedy corporations are – and their track record in making money out of sick people.
“This what a future NHS looks like. If this is May’s parting shot then she’ll have misjudged the strength of feeling the public have for our NHS.”
The SNP warned the Government not to sell Scotland out again in its post-Brexit trade talks with Trump.
MP Deidre Brock said Trump “holds all the cards” and warned of a “growing threat” to Scotland’s NHS and food and drink sector from backroom deals.
The SNP food and rural affairs spokesperson said Scotland’s publicly owned NHS and booming food and drink industry faced an “unprecedented danger”.
She said: “The Tory government has repeatedly sold Scotland out over Brexit, and now we face an unprecedented danger from a backroom deal where Donald Trump holds all the cards.”
Trump also displayed his complete ignorance of British politics during yesterday’s press conference when he praised May for doing “a very good job” in getting negotiations over Brexit to the point they are now at.
The president said he had “predicted” what was going to happen with Brexit, which he said should and will happen.
With all the eloquence of the Trump baby blimp, he said: “I thought it was going to happen because of immigration more than anything else, but probably it happens for a lot of reasons. But I would say, yeah, I would think that it will happen and it probably should happen.
“This is a great, great country and it wants its own identity. It wants to have its own borders, it wants to run its own affairs. This is a very, very special place and I think it deserves a special place.”
Trump was then asked if the US could impose limits on intelligence sharing if the UK used Huawei infrastructure.
“No, because we’re gonna have absolutely an agreement on Huawei and everything else,” he replied.
He also referred to Tory leadership hopefuls Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who was also at the press conference.
“I know Boris. I like him. I have liked him for a long time,” he said. “I think he would do a very good job. I know Jeremy, I think he would do a very good job. I don’t know Michael – would he do a good job, Jeremy?”
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