BROMSGROVE MP Sajid Javid has dismissed claims the NHS will be sold off unless it is protected from the EU trade deal and dubbed them as ‘nonsense’.
It comes after 100 households in the town joined the campaign being driven by the People’s NHS West Midlands to get local MPs to press David Cameron to use his veto to remove the organisation from the deal.
Residents have been responding to the rallying call by raising estate agency style boards outside their homes with the message ‘NHS out of TTIP’ (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership).
Mr Javid said it was ‘complete nonsense’ the proposed agreement would somehow impact the NHS.
“It is just a scare story and it will have zero impact on the NHS,” he added.
“The Government is committed to an NHS that is always there for everyone who needs it, funded from general taxation and free at the point of use.
“The main outcome of the free trade agreement will be a higher standard of living in the UK and more jobs.”
Members of the People’s NHS West Midlands have claimed the TTIP trade deal was being negotiated behind closed doors, between EU bureaucrats and delegates from the United States.
It has been called the largest bilateral trade deal ever negotiated as many feared it threatened to make the ongoing privatisation of the NHS irreversible by giving the profits of corporation’s precedence over national lawmakers.
Claims were also made that the TTIP could grant American multinationals, or any firm with American investors, the power to sue the Government if it ever attempted to take privatised health services back into public ownership.
James Pearson, Bromsgrove resident and supporter of the People’s NHS, said people in the town did not believe it was right for the NHS to be part of the EU trade deal.
“As a member of the cabinet, Sajid Javid had a real opportunity to defend it from an EU trade deal which would mean the ‘irreversible sell off of the NHS’.”
He added: “Bromsgrove households are taking part in this unprecedented nationwide movement to demand David Cameron uses his veto to get the NHS out of TTIP.
“Sajid Javid must listen and help get the NHS out of TTIP – the Conservative Government does not have a mandate to allow the sell-off of the NHS to become permanent.”
