“Tory Eurosceptic MPs are threatening to rebel on the Queen’s Speech unless David Cameron agrees to exempt the NHS from any EU-US free trade deal.
In an extraordinary challenge to the Prime Minister’s authority, more than 25 Tory MPs are set to join Labour to back an amendment giving the health service special status in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Vote Leave sources pointed out to HuffPost UK that the last time a Government was defeated on a Queen’s Speech amendment was 1924 – and then premier Stanley Baldwin had to quit.
The crunch vote is set for next Wednesday – just a month before the EU referendum on June 23. …
… Signatories include Labour’s Paula Sherriff, Jon Cruddas and Ian Mearns. Tories include Peter Lilley, Anne Marie Trevelyan and Steve Baker.
To underline the threat to Cameron’s 17-strong majority, Chris Stephens from the SNP has signed it too.
Labour and trade unions have long argued that the EU-US trade deal needs to specifically exempt the NHS from threat posed by private American healthcare companies.
Lilley, a former Trade and Industry Secretary, said: “I support free trade. But TTIP introduces 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. I cannot understand why the government has not tried to exclude the NHS.
“I and other Tory MPs successfully lobbied to bring a failing private Surgicenter serving our constituencies back into the NHS. It would have been impossible or hugely costly under TTIP had there had been an American owner who could have sued the NHS in a TTIP Court.”
East Devon Watch 