US wants to hike NHS drug prices in a Brexit trade deal, top diplomat declares

The US wants to hike NHS drug prices in a Brexit trade deal, our outgoing Ambassador to Washington has declared.

Sir Kim Darroch said what campaigners and Labour have been warning for months - that talks with America could slap a multi-million pound bill on the beloved health service.

During the election Boris Johnsondismissed "nonsense" claims that a trade deal could push up drug prices.

Yet Sir Kim, forced to quit last summer when his memo on Trump's "inept" White House was leaked, said it is simply fact that the US wants more expensive pharmaceuticals.

And he warned it is also about "a lot more" than chlorine-washed chicken, which US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pushed for on a visit to Britain this week.

He told The Guardian: "I know what the US will be pitching for when they negotiate a free-trade deal with us. They will pitch for massively greater access for agricultural products.

"People talk about chlorinated chicken – it is a lot more than that. Farmers in America vote for Trump, pretty much all of them vote for Trump.

“They also want us to pay the same for American pharmaceuticals as they pay in their own market.

"Do they want us to pay more for their pharmaceuticals? Do the pharmaceutical companies want to use this leverage? Of course they do."

Campaigners fear drugs prices could soar after a US-UK trade deal if price controls or patent rules are changed or removed.

In 2017 pharmaceutical spending was £365 per person while in the US it was £946, according to the OECD.

Trade talks memos highlighted by Jeremy Corbyn in November showed UK negotiators had warned patents on drugs would be a "key consideration going forward".

The documents admitted it could become an area "where we may find ourselves in difficult territory".

A US Chamber of Commerce "priorities" document seen by the Mirror added: “Concerns about potential impacts on Britain’s National Health Service are being aired. It should prove easier to overcome these challenges with the UK as an individual negotiating partner.”

Yet asked about the possibility of drug costs rising last month, Boris Johnson said: "I think everybody by now has rumbled all this for the nonsense that it is."

Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said today: "Boris Johnson told the British people in the recent election there would be no threat to the NHS from a Trump trade deal.

“This bombshell revelation confirms every Labour warning - that the US will indeed seek to force the NHS to pay through the nose for US pharmaceuticals, putting further strain on our cash strapped NHS.”

Boris Johnson and US President Donald Trump have both insisted the NHS won't be "on the table" in trade talks - with Trump saying he wouldn't take the NHS if it was offered on a "silver platter".

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pledged yesterday to put Britain "front of the line" for a trade deal but warned there would be "contentious issues" on agriculture.

Mr Pompeo told LBC: "We need to make sure we don't use food safety as a rouse to try and protect a particular industry. And then we need to have hard conversations about the places we have opportunities to give and take."