THE SNP has challenged Labour to back their NHS Protection Bill following news that Jeremy Corbyn would consider a similar proposal but without including a say on trade deals for the UK’s devolved parliaments.
Nicola Sturgeon’s party launched its General Election campaign by proposing the bill, which would ensure there can be no further privatisation or increase in drug fees as a result of trade deals.
The legislation would also give the UK’s devolved parliaments a veto over any future NHS trade deals.
Speaking ahead of a campaign visit today, the SNP’s depute leader and campaign director Keith Brown said the December 12 election is “one of the most important in Scotland’s history”.
He went on: “With the Scottish NHS facing threat as a result of a Tory-Trump trade deal, only a vote for the SNP is a vote to escape Brexit, boot Boris Johnson out of Downing Street and protect Scotland’s right to choose our own future.
“The SNP launched this election campaign with a commitment to introducing an NHS Protection Bill – sending a clear message to the Tories that our NHS is not for sale. It’s time that Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party got behind these plans that not only protect the UK’s four National Health Services but also respects the hard-fought devolution settlement across the UK.
“In fact as all parties claim they would not allow the NHS to be sold off – all parties – even the Tories should be able to back our bill.”
Brown added that Scotland has the best performing A&Es in the UK, despite “having to pay £240 million every year toward the dodgy private finance deals Labour foisted on the NHS”.
He continued: “A vote for the SNP at this election is a vote to protect our NHS, to escape Brexit and to choose our own future as an independent European nation.”
Sturgeon kicked off her party’s campaign with the NHS announcement earlier this month, with the aim of preventing any future government using the health service as a bargaining chip in a future post-Brexit trade deal.
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The news followed a Channel 4 Dispatches episode which claimed a bilateral trade deal could see the end of drug price caps and which would lead to the NHS paying substantially more for medications based in the US.
Labour claimed the NHS drugs bill could rise by £500m a week in such a scenario.
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