An open letter from Jay Kramer on behalf of Keep Our NHS Public, Hastings & Rother

Keep Our NHS Public Hastings & Rother call on our MPs to cast a vote for our NHS in January

The House of Lords has voted to protect our NHS against sell-off in trade deals with the USA and in other future deals.

Health campaigners in Hastings and Rother and other Keep Our NHS public members were among thousands of people across the country who called on the Lords to protect the NHS.

With MPs’ support, our NHS would be off the negotiating table, preventing further irreversible privatisation. But, in July, Sally Ann Hart, MP for Hastings and Rye, and Hew Merriman, MP for Bexhill and Battle voted against NHS protection. 

The risks, if health services are not excluded from future trade deals, include drug prices rising so high that the NHS could not afford to provide certain medications and NHS data being held in countries where data protections are weaker than in the UK. 

Three-quarters of the public want the NHS to be protected in future trade deals and over 300,000 people signed a petition calling on the Lords to support the NHS and vote for the scrutiny amendment to the Trade Bill.

MPs are expected to listen to their constituents and represent their wishes.

With numbers of coronavirus cases are rocketing in Hastings and Rother people are scared. Now is the time to do the right thing and protect the NHS from further privatisation. THE NHS IS NOT FOR SALE.

MPs must not reverse the positive direction that the Lords have set. We call on Sally-Ann Hart and Huw Merriman to follow the example of the Lords and support the scrutiny and NHS amendments to protect our NHS.

Jay Kramer on behalf of Keep Our NHS Public, Hastings & Rother