Calls for MP to step in amid fears NHS will be sold off as part of EU-US trade deal

Estate agent-style boards urging the NHS to be kept out of an EU trade deal with America have been sprouting up in Chelsea and Fulham.

Campaigners want the health service kept out of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal amid fears it will lead to its irreversible privatisation.

They are now calling on Chelsea & Fulham MP Greg Hands, also Chief Secretary to the Treasury, to press Prime Minister David Cameron to use his veto to get the NHS out of an EU trade deal.

However, Mr Hands defended the proposed pact, saying it will bring “great benefits” to people living in his constituency.

The campaign in the area has been organised by People’s NHS, Save our Hospitals and 38 Degrees, and around 1,500 residents have signed a petition to remove the NHS from TTIP within the Chelsea and Fulham area.

Protesters say the TTIP could be the largest bilateral trade deal ever negotiated and fear it will 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.

Jim Grealy, from Save our Hospitals, said: “The people of Chelsea and Fulham do not believe it is right for the NHS to be part of an EU trade deal. We are due to have our excellent Charing Cross Hospital demolished and replaced by a mini hospital with much reduced services but with TTIP we might lose the entire NHS to multinational companies whose sole interest is their profit margins.

“As a member of the Cabinet, Greg Hands has a real opportunity to defend our NHS from an EU trade deal that means the irreversible sell off of the NHS.

“Chelsea and Fulham is taking part in this unprecedented nationwide movement to demand David Cameron uses his veto to get the NHS out of TTIP. Its our NHS and we must protect it.

“Greg Hands must listen and help get the NHS out of TTIP. The Conservative government does not have a mandate to allow the sell-off of the NHS to become permanent.”

Speaking to getwestlondon from the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Mr Hands said: “Talk about the impact on the NHS is overblown. The EU-US trade agreement is a very good idea and I think it will bring great benefits to my constituents in Chelsea and Fulham.”