A SENIOR Tory minister has admitted drugs prices could sky-rocket as a result of any post-Brexit trade deal with the US.
It came as Donald Trump insisted America wants “nothing to do with” the NHS.
The US president, speaking in London at the start of the Nato summit, claimed he would “stay out” of the General Election campaign because he does not want to “complicate it”.
In a breakfast meeting with Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the US ambassador’s residence in London, Trump was asked if the NHS should be on the table in any post-Brexit trade talks.
He replied: “No, not at all, I have nothing to do with it. Never even thought about it, honestly.”
The president added: “I don’t even know where that rumour started. We have absolutely nothing to do with it and we wouldn’t want to if you handed it to us on a silver platter, we want nothing to do with it.”
The rumour probably started in June, the last time Trump was in the UK, when he was asked then if the NHS would be on the table.
READ MORE: Sturgeon tells Trump Scotland's NHS will 'never be on the table'
At the time, he replied: “When you’re dealing in trade, everything is on the table. So NHS or anything else.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn published a letter to Trump on Monday night in which he asked for “reassurances” that US negotiators would not look to push up UK medicine prices by seeking access to the NHS for major American pharmaceutical companies.
Last week, he shared 451 pages of documents detailing UK-US talks between July 2017 and July this year which covered the NHS, drug pricing and patents, the pharmaceutical industry and medical devices.
Currently, the UK pays some of the lowest drug prices in Europe, in part because of capping of bodies like Sign in Scotland and Nice in England and Wales.
Nice has a ceiling of £30,000 per year, which rises to £50,000 for end-of-life medication such as cancer drugs.
The minutes of the trade talks show that the Trump administration wants the British government to scrap those caps and for future prices to be “competitive”.
On Sky News yesterday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was asked if the US would be free to “jack up prices”. He replied: “The Americans will take their decisions.”
He then claimed: “I think it’s hugely unlikely, why would they do that?”
This prompted Sky News interviewer Adam Boulton to say: “To get more money, that’s why.”
The SNP’s Central Ayrshire candidate Philippa Whitford seized on the Foreign Secretary’s comments. She said: “Dominic Raab has let the cat out of the bag.
“The cost for medicines faced by the NHS is well and truly on the table – and his weak denials that the US would not be interested in pushing up costs are laughable.
“Increasing the price we pay for medicine will be an absolutely central demand in any trade deal – the US government has said as much repeatedly.
“That is simply too high a price to pay.”
Labour’s health spokesman Jonathan Ashworth also pounced, saying: “Dominic Raab has finally admitted what we all know – Boris Johnson is opening the door to a Trump trade deal that will force our NHS medicines bill through the roof.”
According to the SNP, any changes in drug pricing could see the NHS in Scotland forced to add anywhere between £360 million and £2.7 billion to the country’s medicine bill.
Boris Johnson yesterday said he could “categorically rule out” that “any part of the NHS will be on the table in any trade negotiations”.
“This is pure Loch Ness Monster, Bermuda Triangle stuff,” he added.
Meanwhile, Corbyn yesterday apologised for anti-Semitic incidents involving Labour Party members.
READ MORE: FM responds to challenge over Corbyn support in anti-Semitism row
The Labour leader was repeatedly asked to apologise directly by presenter Philip Schofield, in an interview on ITV’s This Morning.
Corbyn said: “Obviously I’m very sorry for everything that’s happened but I want to make this clear I am dealing with it. I have dealt with it.
“Other parties are also affected by anti-Semitism.
“Candidates have been withdrawn by the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives and by us because we do not accept it in any form [of racism] whatsoever.”
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