Corbyn Was Right: The NHS is For Sale

The Government uses their majority to vote down an amendment to the trade bill which would have protected the NHS.


Britain's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks during the Labour party annual conference in Brighton, Britain September 24, 2019. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
Britain's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks during the Labour party annual conference in Brighton, Britain September 24, 2019. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
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WESTMINSTER (Labour Buzz) - Yesterday the Tories used their majority to vote down an amendment specifically designed to protect the NHS from being sold off. But if you didn’t know about it it’s hardly surprising because once again, when the NHS is on the line, the media didn’t want to know. 

Trending on the BBC News website this morning was such delightful headlines as ‘pay rise for almost 9,000 public sector workers; the long-awaited Russia report and MP Rob Robert’s intern difficulties. However, of yesterday’s vote, there was almost nothing. 

This is a particularly glaring omission as they were only too happy to repeat Dominic Raab’s wholly unproven claim linking Labour to Russian interference in the election. The claim came around the leaked report in which Jeremy Corbyn revealed the NHS was very definitely on the table in trade negotiations, something which this vote goes a long way towards proving. 

In November, Corbyn revealed leaked discussions between UK and US officials which appeared to show everything, including the NHS, would be up for grabs. The documents showed that ‘everything is included unless specifically excluded’ and that the US wanted ‘total market access’ to be the baseline for any discussions.’ Officials, he said, had also discussed measures to give corporations the power to sue the UK.  

At the time, the Government rubbished the claims and many in the media were quick to support them. However, the vote yesterday shows government policy for what it is: a clear and cynical attempt to auction off the NHS piece by piece.

(Written by Tom Cropper, Edited by Klaudia Fior)

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