Trade deals will have a massive impact on our lives - from food standards, to the price of your shopping, protecting the environment, and of course, our public services - including OUR NHS!
Despite this, MPs have almost no say over trade deals.The government can begin, negotiate and sign a trade deal without any involvement from MPs. That means MPs cannot protect our NHS in trade deals.
Tory MP Jonathan Djanogly has tabled an amendment to the Trade Bill that gives MPs the power they need. But for it to pass, we have to convince every opposition MP, and a good chunk of the Conservative party to vote with him.
Tell your MP to vote for Djanogly's amendment today:
Currently, MPs don't get a vote on the negotiation objectives, and there is no guaranteed vote after a deal is signed.So if your MP has reassured you that they would never vote through a trade deal that affects the NHS, that promise is meaningless - they can't vote against it either!
That means that Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish Parliaments don't get a say over how trade deals affect devolved matters, because trade deals can be negotiated and signed entirely by the Westminster government.
More scrutiny would mean that trade deals are more likely to be negotiated in the interests of the public, rather than big businesses, and means MPs can protect our NHS.
Of course, this alone won't protect our NHS - we'll have to keep lobbying and making sure that each trade deal that is negotiated doesn't sneak our NHS onto the table.
But this amendment is VITAL for protecting not just our NHS, but our hard-won standards and regulations, on everything from air quality to food safety or data protection.
Email your MP today and tell them to vote for this amendment!
Together we've forced the government to repeatedly deny that the NHS is in danger from trade deals, despite the evidence.
They know that they would never get away with allowing the NHS to be sold off in a trade deal overtly - and as long as we keep up this pressure, they won't dare to try to sneak it through either.
In the long term, we have to organise around reinstating our NHS and removing private companies and corporate control from our health service - that's the only way to truly keep it safe from Trump and his private healthcare cronies.
Let's fight together for OUR NHS!
In solidarity,
Cat, Ellen, Pascale, Chris and Alice - the We Own It team
P.S Jonathan Djanogly has written this for Conservative Home which explains why he's tabled this vital amendment - he says that 'current UK practice on scrutinising trade deals is neither democratic nor practically fit for purpose'. He's got a chance of convincing enough Tory MPs to vote with him - but not without our help!
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