Tories’ Vision of Brexit Damaging for UK
The Supreme Court has ruled and Parliament will have a vote on triggering Article 50.The UK Government will also publish a white paper outlining their Brexit proposals, but local MP Martin Docherty-Hughes says that with each revelation it becomes apparent, “just how damaging the Tories’ vision of Brexit is going to be”, for the UK as a whole and Scotland in particular.
Last Tuesday, to the surprise of the Health Select Committee, Jeremy Hunt revealed that the UK will not seek to remain a member of the European Medicine Agency (EMA) as part of any Brexit deal.
The EMA provides a drug licensing system which covers the 500 million people in the EU, meaning new drugs are licensed in the UK up to 12 months before non-EU countries. Leaving the EMA will have a huge impact on the UK Pharmaceutical industry as well as denying patients timely access to medicines.
The latest bombshell dropped at Prime Minister’s Questions last Wednesday, when Theresa May failed to answer a simple question about potential UK-US trade negotiations ahead of her State Visit to the White House.
Commenting ahead of the Prime Minister’s US visit, Martin Docherty Hughes MP said,
“Europe has amongst the highest food safety standards in the world, and our communities benefit from our public national health systems.
“The US is keen to have health systems fully open to private competition, and to export genetically modified organisms, beef raised with growth hormones and chicken meat washed with chlorinated water.
“The Prime Minister it seems, is willing to allow the privatisation of the NHS south of the border, and food safety standards could be reduced to levels currently considered dangerous by the majority of the Western world, all in the name of private enterprise.
“Equally concerning though is the continued lack of respect being shown to the people of Scotland. The UK Government are failing to work positively with the Scottish Government to respect the wishes of our nation.
“The SNP have published a workable solution that protects Scotland’s place in the Single Market, within the UK and the SNP will table constructive amendments to the Article 50 Bill. The UK Government must give all of these careful consideration and respect the aspirations and needs of Scotland. The Prime Minister must live up to the “Union of equals” rhetoric if she wishes to avoid Scotland revisiting the question of our place in the world.”
