Glenrothes MP’s Bill to protect the NHS from trade deals goes back before Parliament

The NHS Protection Bill would prevent any future UK Government from using the NHS as a bargaining chip in future trade deals as well as forcing Westminster to have the consent of all devolved nations before signing international trade deals.

Ahead of the Bill’s Second Reading in the House of Commons this Friday (November 6), the virtual launch was led by Mr Grant and included speeches from Ruth Bergan from The Trade Justice Movements and Johnbosco Nwogbo of We Own It.

An NHS protection Bill was a key pillar of the SNP’s 2019 General Election campaign.

Mr Grant said: “In its 70-year history, our NHS has never been under greater threat than from this right-wing, Brexit obsessed government at Westminster led by Boris Johnson.

“The Prime Minister’s brazen attitude to securing trade deals has gone from haphazard to dangerous. That’s why I’m bringing forward a Bill to protect each of the National Health Services across Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“When I was lucky enough to be selected to put forward a Private Members Bill my first choice was to protect our NHS from being sold off in any future trade deal.

“I did this for several reasons, all of which were very important to me.

“This Bill was a manifesto commitment I and my SNP colleagues stood on last year and won over three quarters of Scottish constituencies and I believe when you are elected on a manifesto pledge you have to deliver on those promises.

“During my time as the SNP’s Brexit spokesperson and serving on the Brexit Select Committee I could see that Britain was heading for a Brexit that was much more damaging than it needed to be, and a Brexit that was much more damaging than people who voted to leave would have expected or wanted.

“There was a real danger that we would go into trade negotiations in a very weakened and vulnerable position, and those the UK would be negotiating with do not owe the UK anything, their job is to get the best possible deal for their people.

“If that causes long-term damage to the UK then it is not up to other parties to protect us from that, it is up to the UK to protect itself.

“I’m personally convinced the NHS is still the best health service in the world and one that the vast majority of the countries envy.

“That is due in no small part that since day one the intention has been for the majority of the NHS to be held in public ownership and be accountable through Parliament to provide the care that people need, not what they can pay.

“There are lots of developed countries which don’t have those principles and I believe they are now under threat, the USA in particular has made it clear it wants to see the NHS included in any trade deal.

“We have seen a litany of promises made by the UK Government to the devolved administrations not kept, unconditional assurances torn up,

“Promises made by this current UK Government are worthless unless they are given statuatory force through an Act of Parliament, and the purpose of my Bill is to give that statuatiry force to make it quite clear the NHS is not for sale.

“I’m under no illusions of the difficulty in getting Parliament to vote for the Bill, at the moment the Government haven’t said they are against the Bill, but I’ll be pleasantly surprised if they don’t vote it down.

“However, I’m optimistic it will at least be an opportunity to discuss such an important matter that has so far barely been mentioned due to so much going on, when under normal circumstances it should be dominating the news agenda.”