US ‘offered access to NHS’ in trade talks, says Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn has offered what he describes as evidence that access to Britain’s health service is being discussed in trade talks with the US.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson launches the Conservative Party Scottish Manifesto in North Queensferry, Scotland, on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has offered what he describes as evidence that access to Britain’s health service is being discussed in trade talks with the US, handing reporters hundreds of pages of documents.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly denied that Britain’s National Health Service is on the table in such talks, but Mr Corbyn on Wednesday said he had copies of leaked documents from UK-US Trade and Investment working groups that proved otherwise. The NHS, much loved in Britain, has become a key fighting ground before the December 12 election, called to try to break the deadlock in parliament over the country’s departure from the EU.

Mr Corbyn may also be keen to shift the election narrative to the NHS and away from the anti-Semitism row engulfing him. Mr Corbyn, who has argued that Mr Johnson’s Conservative Party will allow the US to increase drug prices as part of a post-Brexit trade deal, said he had 451 pages of unredacted documents on talks between the two countries.

“Perhaps (Mr Johnson) would like to explain why these documents confirm the US is demanding the NHS is on the table in the trade talks,” he told a news conference. “These uncensored documents leave Boris Johnson’s denials in absolute tatters.”

Meanwhile, more than a million people under 25 have applied to vote since the election was called, including a surge in registrations before the Tuesday night deadline.

The number of young people registering to vote was nearly 40 per cent higher than in the same period before the 2017 election. It comes after a concerted campaign by civil society groups, anti-Brexit campaigners and political parties to boost turnout among young and hard-to-reach voters.