Brexit, the NHS and Trump: Boris Johnson’s three promise riddle

Donald Trump now has his own man in Number Ten, and his eyes on our National Health Service. It is just one of the precious national assets that the President and his cronies view as up for grabs under an ugly new chapter of the “special relationship”. Trump has made it clear that wholesale privatisation of the NHS by American companies is “on the table” under the premiership of Boris Johnson, the man he calls “Britain’s Trump”. Johnson is poised to meet the US President three times before the UK is due to leave the EU in 100 days.

As the Boris and Donald “bromance” was cemented yesterday with a swift telephone call to buddy up, as they say in the United States, the Brexit timetable was at the top of their agenda. Because, for Trump, Johnson’s plan is the gateway for his business mates into huge profits from British public services. Starting with the NHS.

Too little attention was given to Trump’s unprecedented interference in the Conservative leadership election, breaking all the rules of diplomacy to make it clear he wanted a victory for Boris, who he said would make an “excellent” Prime Minister. 

In the hours after Boris Johnson’s election, the President’s effusive though illiterate reaction indicated that the relationship between the two men had gone way beyond being buddies. In a typical display of self-regard, Trump even publicly claimed Boris Johnson is popular in the UK because he’s seen as “Britain’s Trump”.

But it’s clear that Trump is motivated not only by vanity but by the interests of US capitalism, whose creature he is. Trump is many things, but first and foremost he is an opportunist, and for him opportunity has come knocking – all the way to the door of 10 Downing Street. 

This is not what most people voted for when they voted to leave the EU. They wanted the UK to be a strong, independent nation state. Certainly not separating ourselves from Brussels only to be subordinated to US economic interests.

One of the arguments that was a factor in obtaining a majority for Brexit in the referendum was the proposal that if we don’t have to pay into the EU, then we could pay more into the NHS. Everybody knows that this promise was made to the British people by the now Prime Minister of the country. It is not the only promise he has made. 

Indeed, Johnson now faces a dilemma that we can pose as the “riddle of the three promises”. First, he has promised Brexit by October 31st. Second, he has promised the NHS £350m per week extra. Third, he has promised to be Trump’s best pal.

Here is the problem for the new Prime Minister: Trump hates what he calls “socialised medicine” – our NHS. He is already salivating at the prospect of opening up the British health system to US capital. When it comes to any US-UK trade deal. the NHS is “on the table”, as he has put it. The Tories have already begun to drive a privatising wedge into the NHS. Trump would introduce a bulldozer.

This greed won’t end there. The NHS is only one case – a special one to be sure – of what the US administration and US capital wants from Boris. It’s likely he’ll be only too happy to oblige, especially if recent company is anything to go by. Johnson is reportedly a supporter of the Institute of Economic Affairs’ “Plan A” report, which argues for the UK to move away from the EU’s strict regulations to “capture the Brexit Prize” and secure free-trade deals with other countries, particularly the US. As is now well-known, the IEA, which doesn’t disclose its funding, is a fervent advocate of privatising the NHS. 

There’s more. While at the Foreign Office, Johnson hosted the launch a new think tank, the Initiative for Free Trade, which advocates a free-trade deal between the UK and the US that according to the Guardian “would see the NHS opened to foreign competition, a bonfire of consumer and environmental regulations and freedom of movement between the two countries for workers”. These policies were reportedly developed in partnership with a group of US and UK dark money think-tanks, including the American Enterprise Institute, which Johnson has previously accepted a donation from. 

The writing is clearly on the wall. When Boris says Britain is “open for business” we should beware.  Let’s renew our vow that that Britsh public services are not up for sale. Labour will bring an end to the Tory policy of outsourcing public services, which are paid for by taxpayers. And we will fight with every fibre of our beings to protect Labour’s greatest creation, the National Health Service, from those who would seek to carve it up for a quick buck.