Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn claims documents obtained by his party confirm the NHS would be on the table in post-Brexit trade talks with the US under a Tory government.
Mr Corbyn revealed 451-pages of unredacted information today and said it showed a very different version of events to details officially released by the Government.
He made the claims at an event in London, in which he again refused to apologise for alleged anti-Semitism within the Labour Party
Boris Johnson has blasted claims the NHS would be included in negotiations as nonsense, while international trade secretary Liz Truss has likened Mr Corbyn’s comments to conspiracy theories.
Mr Corbyn, who insisted his party would never include the NHS in trade talks, said: Perhaps he’d like to explain why these documents confirm the US is demanding the NHS is on the table in the trade talks.
The uncensored documents leave Boris Johnson’s denials in absolute tatters. He said the documents detailed six rounds of meetings from July 2017 to just a few months ago.
These took part in Washington and London, he said.
We are talking here about secret talks for a deal with Donald Trump after Brexit. A deal that will shape our country’s future, Mr Corbyn said.
These reports pull back the curtain on the secrecy that’s being plotted for us all, behind closed doors, by the Conservative government. This is what they didn’t want you to know.
Copies of the document were handed out among the media in the event.
This election is now a fight for the survival of our National Health Service, said Mr Corbyn.
The PM said it was “total nonsense” to suggest that healthcare has been discussed in trade talks with the US.
Speaking in the aftermath of Mr Corbyn’s statement, Mr Johnson said: It’s total nonsense. This is brought up time and again by the Labour Party as a distraction from the problems that they are having, particularly with the absence of leadership on stamping down on anti-Semitism and also the absence of leadership on the EU.
The Conservative Party’s press account, CCHQ Press, said the comments from Mr Corbyn were “increasingly desperate” and were a “transparent attempt to distract” from his own issues.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson looks through stacked washing machine door parts during his general election campaign visit to Ebac manufacturing plant in Newton Aycliffe, England on Nov. 20.
Cabinet minister Ms Truss, responding for the Tories, said: People should not believe a word that he says- this stunt is simply a smokescreen for the fact that he has no plan for Brexit and that he has been forced to admit that he wants to increase taxes for millions of families.
As we have consistently made clear: the NHS will not be on the table in any future trade deal and the price that the NHS pays for drugs will not be on the table. This sort of conspiracy theory fuelled nonsense is not befitting of the leader of a major political party.
Mr Corbyn has attacked Mr Johnson over the NHS at multiple points in the campaign, brandishing a redacted version of the document he now claims to have unveiled at him during a head-to-head debate.