Did Boris Johnson offer US companies access to Britain’s NHS? Jeremy Corbyn says he has proof

Corbyn held up what he said were 451 pages of previously secret documents showing the NHS would be on the table in a post-Brexit trade deal

He warned: ‘Megacorporations see Johnson’s alliance with Trump as a chance to make billions from the illness and sickness of people’ in the UK

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Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn holds up redacted documents of secret talks between the UK and US governments during a speech on the NHS in London. Photo: EPA

Published: 8:01pm, 27 Nov 2019Updated: 9:00pm, 27 Nov 2019

Britain’s main opposition Labour Party on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of plotting a “toxic” deal with Donald Trump to allow US pharmaceutical companies access to the state health service.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn held up what he said were 451 pages of previously secret documents that proved Johnson was seeking to put the National Health Service (NHS) on the table in a post-Brexit trade deal.

Britain goes to the polls on December 12, with Johnson hoping to secure a majority to be able to push through his divorce deal to take the country out of the European Union.

The funding and running of the NHS is a recurring election topic. Corbyn had previously obtained a redacted version of the document, which Johnson said was “an absolute invention”.

But the Labour leader said the unredacted version catalogued six meetings between US and UK officials since 2017, detailing “what they [the Conservatives] don’t want you to know”.

“The US is demanding that our NHS is on the table in negotiations for a toxic deal,” he told reporters in central London.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during an election campaign visit to West Cornwall Community hospital. Photo: AFP

The sale of the NHS was the government’s “secret agenda”, he added, warning the coming election was “a fight for the survival of the National Health Service as a public service”.