“Our NHS is not for sale’ - Peterborough MP rejects opposition bid in Parliament to protect NHS from post-Brexit trade deals as irrelevant

Mr Bristow was among 340 MPs who voted down the amendment by Green Party MP Caroline Lucas this week (Monday, July 20) which garnered 251 votes in favour of it.

Ms Lucas had called for “red lines in the negotiations” with the amendment designed to protect the NHS from being subject to any form of control from outside the UK in a future post-Brexit trade deal with the US or other countries, as the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a new visit to the UK this week.

Fellow local Conservatives against the new Clause 17 of the international trade agreements: health or care services bill, included Gareth Davies (Grantham and Stamford),

Jonathan Djanogly (Huntingdon), John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings) and Alicia Kearns (Rutland and Melton).

Shailesh Vara did not take part.

Commenting on his vote, Mr Bristow told the Peterborough Telegraph: “The Trade Bill allows us to keep agreements with 20 countries by rolling them over from the EU. It’s a straightforward bit of legislation that lets British businesses access £1.3 trillion of overseas contracts, while protecting them from unfair trade practices.

“I want to be absolutely clear – our NHS is not for sale. The Government will never allow the NHS to be put ‘on the table’ in future trade talks. No matter how many times this claim is repeated, it remains a lie.

“The Opposition amendments on Monday were just a cheap stunt in search of a cheap headline. Fortunately, people in Peterborough are far too smart to fall for that.”

He explained that the amendments were both irrelevant to the purpose of the bill and unworkable.

It was also explainexd that the Trade Bill is a continuity bill and cannot be used to implement new free trade agreements with countries such as the US. Rather, it is designed to enable the free trade agreements that the EU had signed with other countries before the UK exited. The NHS is already protected by specific carve outs, exceptions and reservations in these trade agreements.

The rejected amendment also contained other measures to protect the NHS, including:

Providing “a comprehensive publicly funded health service free at the point of delivery”,

Protecting the pay, employment rights and terms and conditions of health and care staff.

Maintaining the quality and safety of health and care services,

Regulating and controlling pricing of medicines or medical devices.

Protecting patient and public health data being sold on.

Protecting the quality and safety of health and care services.

Protecting the NHS from ‘investor-state’ dispute settlements which allow foreign investors to sue national governments for any measures which harm their profits.

Labour has repeatedly claimed at the last election that the Conservatives would allow a sell off of NHS services as part of a US trade deal.

The amendment would aim to protect the NHS and publicly funded health and care services in other parts of the UK from any form of control from outside the UK.