Horsham households call for NHS to be protected from TTIP trade deal

The People’s NHS campaigners say around 1,000 Horsham households have joined them in calling for the NHS to be protected from a controversial trade deal.
Mick Duncan and local residents protesting NHS out of TTIP in Horsham. Pic Steve Robards SR1514915 SUS-150630-135241001Mick Duncan and local residents protesting NHS out of TTIP in Horsham. Pic Steve Robards SR1514915 SUS-150630-135241001
Mick Duncan and local residents protesting NHS out of TTIP in Horsham. Pic Steve Robards SR1514915 SUS-150630-135241001

They say the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal would lead to the ‘irreversible sell off of the NHS’, and want Horsham’s former MP to do his bit to protect it.

People’s NHS supporters took to the streets on Tuesday to make their voices heard.

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A statement from the group said: “Around 1,000 homes across Horsham are calling on The Rt Hon. the Lord Maude of Horsham to press David Cameron to use his veto to get the NHS out of an EU trade deal that will lead to the irreversible privatisation of the NHS.

“Households will raise estate agency style boards outside their homes with the message to get the ‘NHS out of TTIP.

“The TTIP trade deal is being negotiated behind closed doors, between EU bureaucrats and delegates from the United States. It is the largest bilateral trade deal ever negotiated and threatens to make the on-going privatisation of the NHS irreversible by giving the profits of corporation’s precedence over national lawmakers. TTIP could grant American multinationals, or any firm with American investors, the power to sue the government if it ever attempted to take privatised health services back into public ownership.

“Horsham is the latest constituency to join the mass movement, which has seen over 120,000 collective actions by people. Households that have taken part include: Battersea (Jane Ellison MP), Reading West (Alok Sharma MP), Dorset West (Oliver Letwin MP), Cardiff North (Jonathan Evans MP), Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy MP), Broxtowe (Anna Sobury MP), Morecambe and Lunesdale (David Morris MP), Dumfries & Galloway (David Mundell MP), South Antrim (David Forde MLA) and Stockton South (James Wharton MP).”

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Robbie Clark, spokesperson for the People’s NHS, said: “Francis Maude, as the minister responsible for TTIP at Westminster has a unique opportunity to defend our NHS from an EU trade deal that means the irreversible sell off of the NHS.

“Thousands of households have already taken part in this unprecedented nationwide movement to demand David Cameron uses his veto to get the NHS out of TTIP. Now voters in Francis Maude’s own constituency in Horsham are demanding action to get the NHS out of TTIP. That’s why we expect Francis Maude to use his position to put pressure on David Cameron to act. The Conservative government does not have a mandate to allow the sell-off of the NHS to become permanent.”

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