Europe Minister David Lidington denied yesterday that Britain’s NHS is under major threat from the proposed free trade treaty between the EU and the US.

“We do not envisage that there would be any significant change in the current position,” the Tory told concerned Labour MP Ian Lavery in the Commons.

Unions and labour movement campaigners are warning that the proposed neoliberal trade deal will open the floodgates for a further surge of privatisation throughout the public sector.