The Implications of Brexit for the Welsh NHS

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Brexit Minister (in respect of his Brexit Minister responsibilities) – in the Senedd at 2:53 pm on 4 December 2019.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 2:53, 4 December 2019

Absolutely. I would endorse 100 per cent what the Member has just said. An incoming Conservative Government would put the NHS on the table in trade talks with Donald Trump. I'm absolutely not assured, as I know that she won't be either, by the attempts by the US President to throw us off that particular scent, which I think is obvious to all of us.

The dossier, as I understand it, relates to conversations between UK and US officials that predated the publication of the US negotiating mandate. So, that mandate, if you have read it, absolutely says nowhere that health services are taken off the table, as the UK Government now seems to be seeking to persuade us. It goes out of its way to talk about access for pharmaceutical markets to the UK. That can only mean one thing in the context of the UK healthcare system. So, I absolutely agree with her. Either the UK Government has not taken this off the table, or it has not done half enough to make the US Government clearly understand that there is no way that the NHS is going to be up for negotiation, and absolutely I agree with her that we must make sure there is no incoming Conservative Government that would put the NHS up for sale.