Boris Johnson must ‘come clean with the electorate and hold to his election pledge’

• AFTER leaving St Thomas’ Hospital on April 12 after his emergency admission for Covid-19, Boris Johnson profusely thanked National Health Service staff: “I have today left hospital after a week in which the NHS has saved my life, no question.”

Last November, before the general election, Boris Johnson stated, “we are absolutely resolved that there will be no sale of the NHS, no privatisation, the NHS is not on the table in any way.”

On March 1 a government press release acknowledged the deep concerns among the British electorate that the United States will demand access to the NHS.

The government stated once again that it remains committed to keeping the health service universal and free at the point of use, though went short of saying the NHS is not for sale.

We are deeply shocked, therefore, that in the recently drawn up Trade Bill, there is no mention of any protection for the NHS or parliamentary scrutiny of trade deals.

We are extremely concerned that this might mean that a deal will be done, without full parliamentary scrutiny, which will open up our NHS to US healthcare corporations and drug companies.

It is troubling that Boris Johnson and his advisers are rushing to make trade deals during the Covid-19 emergency.

He must immediately come clean with the electorate and hold to his election pledge.

We urge people to write to their MP to ask them to protect the NHS by insisting on full parliamentary scrutiny of trade deals and to join a campaign group Keep Our NHS Public https://keepournhspublic.com

LIZ DE KELLER, DR JUDITH COOK, DR JACKY DAVIS, DR ISKY GORDON, PROFESSOR GILL WALT, SM SANSBURY, FIONA LEE, PROFESSOR CHRIS COOK