The Impact of a UK/US Trade Deal on the Welsh NHS

Part of 3. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:41 pm on 12 November 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:41, 12 November 2019

Well, Llywydd, anybody taking a serious interest in this topic would do well to look at the USA negotiating principles, published by the Trump presidency in February of this year. It sets out that all services—all services—in the United Kingdom should be open to competition unless they appear on a list of exceptions. And in the list of exceptions published in that document, neither the health service nor social care services appear. In other words, it is absolutely plain that the United States regards our NHS as up for sale, and a desperate deal that would be done by the current Prime Minister, determined to demonstrate that he is able to strike free trade deals across the world, would undoubtedly put our national health service up for grabs. That's why we are anxious about it here in Wales, and is the current Prime Minister to be trusted not to do that? Well, ask the people of Northern Ireland, where he went and gave them an absolute commitment that there would be no border down the Irish sea, only to find a few short weeks later that he'd signed exactly that deal. We can expect the same level of reliability in what he says about the national health service.