SNP MP Seamus Logan explains how his private members bill could protect the NHS
Seamus Logan is the MP for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East and the SNP’s health and social care spokesperson
At a recent debate in Parliament, the Health Secretary bellowed at me across the House of Commons that he had said it before, and he would say it again – the NHS would be privatised over his dead body.
The Rt Hon Wes Streeting MP was responding to my question to him to confirm that no aspect of the NHS, in any form of privatisation whatsoever, would be included in the much-discussed trade deal between the UK and the United States. He repeated to me that he had been clear and unequivocal that the NHS was not up for sale in any trade deal.
This banter might seem inconsequential except it puts the matter on the record. Additionally, it was all conducted prior to the initial general terms agreement on an Economic Prosperity Proposal between the UK and US announced earlier this month. The UK Government Business Secretary, Jonathon Reynolds, has confirmed that this opening deal does not include any concessions related to the NHS.
If this remains the case, then it bodes well for my Private Members (Presentation) Bill on Trade Agreements (Exclusion of National Health Services) that is slowly working its way through Parliament at present with a second reading in September. However, as we all know, saying and doing are really two quite different things in politics and certainly when it comes to being in government. This bluer rather than red version of Labour has made a series of policy decisions since they came into power that would seem to contradict the very core of their political credo and continues to shock voters who leant them their support last summer. Should we then take them at their word? Probably not.
Dead bodies aside, demanding a cast iron guarantee from the Labour Government that the NHS will remain far away from any evolving trade deal with Donald Trump became even more important recently when the Good Law Project revealed that Streeting had received donations of £372,000 from sources linked to private healthcare since 2015, including £58,000 since the General Election. At the same time, he had previously boasted that the UK had “a lot to offer” the US in terms of access to NHS data for medical research. Meanwhile, the President has already signalled quite clearly that as far as he is concerned, everything is on the table as this trade deal continues, including the NHS.
While I would agree that it is in all our interests to negotiate a trade deal with the US, that must not come at any cost and particularly not if it threatens our NHS, which is free at the point of use or indeed any of our other precious industries. I firmly believe, as does my party, that the NHS is an incredibly important and rightly revered institution, a view shared by most people in the UK and we share a belief that it deserves to be run in a way that prioritises people, not private profits.
That is why the devil is most certainly in the detail of this Bill, calling to exclude requirements relating to National Health Services procurement, delivery or commissioning from international trade agreements; to require the consent of the House of Commons and the devolved legislatures to international trade agreements insofar as they relate to the National Health Services of England, Scotland and Wales and Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland; and for connected purposes.
This point on requiring consent from the devolved legislatures is very important because the Scottish Government were not informed that any initial trade deal was imminent nor were they consulted on its content. While this makes no sense on paper when you take into account our important multi-million pound Scotch Whisky and Salmon exports to the US and the current hard knock to these sectors from US tariffs, the UK Government have got form when it comes to excluding Holyrood from important decisions that have huge implications for Scotland. My Bill seeks to ensure that they cannot bypass Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland when it comes to any deal that may include the NHS over which we have devolved competence of course.
Finally, while the Health Secretary was most exercised about my recent question to him, he cannot deny that he did say openly when in opposition that he would go further than Tony Blair ever did on NHS privatisation, “hold(ing) the door wide open” for the private sector. It’s this enthusiasm combined with donations from those with an interest in privatising the NHS that has set alarm bells ringing on any future inclusion of the NHS in this ongoing Trump trade truce.
To echo Streeting himself, I’ll also say it again, as I have said before – trading away any part of the NHS in a deal with Trump will be far too high a price to pay.
Image credit: Lauren Hurley / Number 10 – Creative Commons
Left Foot Forward doesn’t have the backing of big business or billionaires. We rely on the kind and generous support of ordinary people like you.
You can support hard-hitting journalism that holds the right to account, provides a forum for debate among progressives, and covers the stories the rest of the media ignore. Donate today.
