David Cameron moves to head off TTIP rebellion
- 38 minutes ago
- EU Referendum
PA
Downing Street has agreed to sign up to a cross-party move to exclude the NHS from the terms of a controversial EU-US trade deal over TTIP.
The move is aimed at heading off a possible Commons defeat for David Cameron.
Tory rebels were threatening to join forces with Labour and the SNP to force through an amendment to the Queen's Speech to safeguard the health service.
But Downing Street has denied them the chance by saying they will back it.
A Number 10 spokesman said: "As we've said all along, there is no threat to the NHS from TTIP. So if this amendment is selected, we'll accept it."
The Vote Leave campaign immediately branded the move a "humiliating climb down".
Conservative MP and Leave campaigner Steve Baker MP said: "The government has today admitted that the EU is a threat to our NHS. The only way we can protect the NHS from TTIP is if we Vote Leave on 23 June."
The amendment - signed by 25 Tory MPs - expresses regret that the government has not brought forward a bill to protect the NHS from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal, currently being negotiated between the EU and the US.
Although it would have been a purely symbolic vote, no government has suffered a defeat on a Queen's Speech, which sets out its legislative programme for the year ahead, since 1924.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has long opposed TTIP, had said he would back the Conservative rebels.
It is understood the SNP and other minority parties were also likely to support the amendment.
'Completely protected'
Sources in the Vote Leave campaign predicted the government would face defeat unless it backed down.
The BBC's assistant political editor, Norman Smith, said such a result would have been a humiliation for Mr Cameron after he was also forced to back down over reforms to disability benefits in the Budget.
Conservative former minister Peter Lilley, who supported the amendment, said that although he supports free trade, TTIP would introduce "special courts which are not necessary for free trade, will give American multinationals the right to sue our government (but not vice versa) and could put our NHS at risk".
What is TTIP?
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TTIP is primarily a deal to cut tariffs and regulatory barriers to trade between the US and EU countries, making it potentially easier for companies on both sides of the Atlantic to access each other's markets.
Industries it would affect include pharmaceuticals, cars, energy, finance, chemicals, clothing and food and drink.
The government says shoppers would benefit by the removal of EU import tariffs on popular goods, such as jeans and cars.
In the UK, attention has focused on the potential impact on the NHS, with critics saying TTIP would allow private firms running NHS services to sue the government if it chose to return the services to the public sector.
Labour MP Frank Field, who backed the amendment, said: "We can't have kangaroo courts, operating only to America's advantage, deciding how we should trade in respect of the NHS."
Former Labour foreign secretary Lord Owen, of the Vote Leave campaign, said the prime minister had a problem because "millions of people in the country do not want the health service dragged into this EU-US trade agreement".
SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh said: "The SNP have been at the forefront of the campaign to protect the NHS and other public services from the potential consequences of TTIP, and so we welcome any opportunity to ensure that the Tory government keep the promises they have already made."
But former Labour minister Rachel Reeves, writing on the Labour List website, said: "Those who want Britain to leave the EU need to stop preying on British peoples' love for the NHS by cynically pretending that TTIP poses a threat. It does not.
"They are demeaning their own campaign by arguing a case they know to be untrue."
She added: "What it will do is open up the American market to British companies, creating opportunities for business that will boost jobs and growth here at home."
'TTIPs on steroids'
EU officials had stressed that health services would not be affected by the TTIP deal, she argued, and the NHS Confederation, which represents health providers, had concluded the NHS would be protected from privatisation.
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, who like Ms Reeves is backing the Remain campaign, said she would vote for the Conservative rebel amendment.
"The Tory government is a major driving force for TTIP - and David Cameron is one of the deal's top cheerleaders," she said.
"If we left the EU, then we could be left with the government negotiating trade deals with the rest of the world. What then?
"With the Tories still in charge, we could then expect the roll out of multiple TTIPs on steroids as Britain negotiated trade deals with countries across the world."
She added: "That doesn't sound like safety for our NHS to me."
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