In a major speech on Brexit in Harlow tomorrow (Tuesday),
MP, Leader of the , will pledge to “get Brexit
sorted” in six months and will accuse of trying to “hijack Brexit
to sell out our NHS and working people by stripping away their
rights.”
Corbyn will challenge the Conservative Party’s efforts to
“suppress” reporting of the estimated £500 million per week cost
to the NHS of Johnson’s sell-out deal with Donald Trump. He will
say that “Johnson’s Trump deal Brexit puts a price tag on our
NHS” and declare that under Labour “our NHS is not for
sale”.
The Labour Leader will say that Johnson’s “real agenda” for
Brexit is to “reverse hard-fought gains won by working class
people over generations”, calling it “Thatcherism on
steroids”.
Corbyn will say that in place of Johnson’s sell out-deal,
Labour will “get Brexit sorted in six months by giving the people
the final say” so Britain can “get beyond
Brexit”.
On Johnson hijacking Brexit to sell out our NHS,
MP, Leader of the , will say:
is trying to hijack Brexit to
sell out our NHS and working people.
Many people who voted to leave tell me they were voting for
change. Johnson and the Leave campaign promised to rebuild our
NHS.
Johnson stood in front of a bus and promised £350 million a
week for the NHS. Now we find out that £500 million a week could
be taken out of the NHS and handed to big drugs companies under
his plans for a sell-out trade deal with Donald Trump.
We now know that US and UK officials have been discussing
drug pricing in secret and the US government is demanding “full
market access for US products.” Senior NHS managers have said
that would mean “higher prices for medicines” which will “pass on
costs to both patients and the NHS.”
Behind the scenes, the Conservatives have tried to suppress
the news, attacking the BBC for reporting what we and health
professionals are saying. This is what they don’t want you to
hear: a vote for Johnson’s Conservatives is a vote to betray our
NHS in a sell-out to Trump.
Johnson’s Trump deal Brexit puts a price tag on our NHS. So
we’ll say it again and again until the message gets through to
the White House: our NHS is not for sale.”
On Thatcherism on steroids, will say:
This threat to our NHS isn’t a mistake. It’s not happening
by accident. The threat is there because Boris Johnson’s
Conservatives want to hijack Brexit to sell out the NHS and sell
out working people by stripping away their rights.
Given the chance, they’ll run down our rights at work our
entitlements to holidays, breaks and leave.
Given the chance, they’ll slash food standards to US levels
where “acceptable levels” of rat hairs in paprika and maggots in
orange juice are allowed and they’ll put chlorinated chicken on
our supermarket shelves.
And given the chance, they’ll water down the rules on air
pollution and our environment that keep us safe.
They want a race to the bottom in standards and
protections. They want to move us towards a more deregulated
American model of how to run the economy.
In the US workers get just 10 days holiday a year, big
business gets free rein to call the shots and tens of millions
are denied healthcare.
What Boris Johnson’s Conservatives want is to hijack Brexit
to unleash Thatcherism on steroids.
Margaret Thatcher’s attack on the working people of our
country left scars that have never healed and communities that
have never recovered. The Conservatives know they can’t win
support for what they’re planning to do in the name of
Thatcherism. So they’re trying to do it under the banner of
Brexit instead.
On sorting Brexit in six months, will say:
A Labour government will get Brexit sorted within six
months by giving you, the British people, the final say.
It won’t be a re-run of 2016. This time the choice will be
between leaving with a sensible deal or remaining in the European
Union.
So an incoming Labour government will first secure a
sensible deal. That will take no longer than three months because
the deal will be based on terms we’ve already discussed with the
EU, including a new customs union, a close single market
relationship and guarantees of rights and protections.
So if you want to leave the EU without trashing our economy
or selling out our NHS you’ll be able to vote for it. If you want
to remain in the EU, you’ll be able to vote for that. Either way,
only a Labour government will put the final decision in your
hands.
And we will immediately carry out your decision so Britain
can get beyond Brexit.
