Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) will be in severe danger if Britain does not vote to leave the European Union (EU), a top cancer specialist has warned.
With less than 50 days to go until the Brexit referendum, Professor Angus Dalgleish said that if Britain is still a member of the European Union when the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal with the United States is concluded, the NHS could be branded a state monopoly and broken up.
According to campaigners, part of the deal known as the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) could allow American, and even European, healthcare firms to sue the NHS for being “uncompetitive”.
The deal would establish a committee that deals with state monopolies that meets annually to discuss nationalised bodies like the NHS to make sure they are not “distorting the market”.
One clause states: “The parties acknowledge that anti-competitive business practices and state interventions have the potential to distort the proper functioning of markets and undermine the benefits of trade liberalization.”
Professor Dalgleish, who is Professor of Oncology at St George’s University of London, told the Daily Express: “It will be a free for all. The NHS will have to compete with health care providers not just from America but also Europe. It is already virtually bankrupt so it would not stand a chance.
“Voters basically will have a choice between keeping the NHS or remaining in the EU.”
UKIP leader Nigel Farage said: “There are 50 days to save the NHS. Huge American corporations want to use TTIP to get their hands on the NHS so they can asset strip it for profit.
“The NHS is about our national health not the private wealth of US corporates. The only way to protect ourselves from the effects of TTIP is to vote to leave the EU’s political union.
“I would urge people to speak to their friends and family, present the facts on the costs of EU membership and convince them to vote Leave.”