Downing Street insisted today the NHS would be protected in any US-UK trade deal hours after the Prime Minister earlier refused to say it would be.
Theresa May’s official spokesman quoted the PM’s own declaration from a year ago that the ‘NHS is not for sale and never will be’.
The confusion came after Mrs May ducked a question from Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable on whether the health service would be protected from US health companies.
Labour’s shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth condemned the Prime Minister’s ‘flip-flopping’ insisting keeping the NHS off the market was ‘not something you just forget’.
Mrs May’s hesitation is in stark contrast to the British position in recent US-EU trade talks – known as TTIP – in which the Government demanded exclusion for the NHS.
Following Prime Minister’s Questions, Downing Street initially insisted included the NHS in any trade deal was a ‘hypothetical’ question despite the precedent set in the previous talks.
Theresa May (pictured at PMQs today) refused to rule out the NHS being included in the US-UK trade deal after Brexit prompting claims she could allow trans-Atlantic privatisation
The Prime Minister insisted it was impossible to say what would be included in any deal before the United States set out its own demands
At a later briefing, Mrs May’s spokesman said: ‘I would point you to the answer the Prime Minister gave at PMQs on February 1, 2017, in which she was asked would she rule out opening the NHS to private US health care companies.
‘The PM replied the NHS is not for sale and never will be.’
Asked why the PM did not say this at today’s session, the spokesman said: ‘The Prime Minister had already made clear at a previous PMQs her position.’
He added: ‘Any trade deal ensures decisions about public services continue to be made by UK governments not by our trade partners.
‘The UK’s public health sector is protected by specific exceptions and reservations in all EU trade arrangements and as we leave the EU the UK will continue to ensure rigorous protections for the NHS are included in all trade agreements.’
Mr Ashworth said: ‘Our NHS should never be up for sale. That’s not something you just forget.
‘Theresa May’s comments today exposed the Tories’ shaky commitment to our NHS in the quest to cosy up to Donald Trump.
‘Clearly the British public can’t trust our public health service with a flip-flopping Prime Minister and a party that has spent almost eight years running it down.’
Best for Britain campaigner and Green MP Caroline Lucas said: ‘The Government’s screeching u-turn on this won’t inspire confidence in anyone – it’s clear that the Brexit brigade can’t be trusted with our NHS.’
The row over the NHS (file image of the Gloucestershire Royal) began when Mrs May swerved a question from Sir Vince on the planned trade deal
The row began when Mrs May swerved a question from Sir Vince on the planned trade deal.
She said: ‘We are starting the discussion with the American administration, first of all looking at what we can do to increase trade already.
‘You don’t know what they’re going to say and their requirements for that FTA, we’ll go into those negotiations to get the best possible deal for the UK.’
Asked after the session what Mrs May meant, her spokesman said: ‘We are the outset of these discussions. The Prime Minister’s comments reflected that fact.
‘The point here is we are not into the detail of those discussions.’
Asked if the PM was aware of concerns trade deals could increase private involvement in the NHS, the spokesman said: ‘When we looked at the debate on TTIP as it was then, we were very clear the NHS had specific protections and would not be included.
‘The principles as they were set out then were clear.
‘We are at the outset of these discussions. We want a deal that is in the best interests of the British people, as we do with all our trading policies.’
A spokesman for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (pictured at PMQs today) said the public would be astonished to learn the NHS could be left open to American private healthcare
Asked why the principle from TTIP could not be restated for the new talks, the spokesman said: ‘I have set out an existing position and I have told what the Prime Minister said in the House, that we do not have existing position on a trade deal that is yet to be negotiated.’
Mr Corbyn’s spokesman condemned the Government’s equivocation on leaving the NHS open to private investment from the US.
Mrs May swerved a question from Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable (pictured at Kingston Hospital on Monday) at PMQs on whether she would exclude the NHS at the outset of talks
He said: ‘We have said from the beginning of the post referendum debate that any attempt to use Brexit to push Britiain into a race to a bottom in protections, standards and regulations is completely unacceptable.
‘Obviously a faction of the Tory Party leadership supports that. We cannot accept any kind of arrangement which would allow American corporations or any other country’s corporate sector to cherry pick parts of the NHS.’
He added: ‘Under no circumstances can our NHS be up for grabs in any future trade deals, with the US or any other country.
‘Theresa May’s refusal to rule that out is both alarming and unacceptable.
‘We won’t let patients pay the price for the Tory privatisation obsession.’
Following the session, Sir Vince said: ‘The Prime Minister’s non-answer to my question today can only infer that our NHS is indeed for sale under the Conservatives.
‘Her pathetic non-committal response, failing to even mention our health service once, stands in stark contrast to guarantees given in 2015 by the EU trade negotiator with the US during the TTIP negotiations that our NHS would be protected.
‘Unfortunately Brexit Britain, standing on our own, will be in a far weaker negotiating position.’