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2019.11.28 05:23 GMT+8

Corbyn says Johnson will put UK health care system ‘up for sale’ to US

Updated 2019.11.28 05:23 GMT+8
Omar Elwafaii

As Brexit and an election loom, Britain's health care system is the newest battleground for politicians.

Britain's Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn shows blacked out papers as he delivers a speech in London, England, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2019, ahead of the general election on Dec. 12.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn claims Prime Minister Boris Johnson is planning to put the nation's National Health Service (NHS) "up for sale" in trade talks with the United States.

Armed with 451 pages of negotiations between the U.K. and U.S., the Labour leader claims it proves the Conservative Party plans to use the NHS as a bargaining chip within the trade deal between the two countries after the U.K. leaves the European Union.

Britain's Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn poses with documents after his speech in London, England, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2019, ahead of the general election on Dec. 12.

Although the documents had been released before, they were heavily redacted. In its current form, the leaked papers seem to bolster Labours claims.

Johnson, who was not prime minister for most of the two-year-period covered in the documents, rejected the claim.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson speaks during a media conference after a meeting of the EU3 and Iran at EEAS headquarters in Brussels

"It is a total nonsense, and it is endlessly repeated by the Labour Party, that the NHS is somehow up for sale," Johnson said. "Nothing could be further from the truth."

Corbyn and others fear the United States could push for Britain to pay higher drug prices for American owned pharmaceuticals, which would cost the NHS considerably more. Healthcare and immigration were two of the main concerns for voters who backed Brexit

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