THE NHS must not be a “sacrificial lamb” in trade negotiations between the government and US President Donald Trump, prominent labour movement figures demanded today.

All Conservative leadership challengers should “categorically rule out” selling off the NHS as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the US, the Unite union stressed.

Unite national health officer Colenzo Jarrett-Thorpe said: “The Tory prime ministerial contenders need to put the national interest – in this case, the safeguarding the NHS from US privateers – before the personal ambition of getting their hands on the keys to 10 Downing Street.”

The calls followed Mr Trump saying that “everything with the trade deal is on the table” during a press conference alongside Prime Minister Theresa May.

“When you’re dealing in trade, everything’s on the table, so NHS or anything else or a lot more than that, but everything will be on the table, absolutely.”

The union’s calls were backed by the Labour Party.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “The NHS must not be for sale and under a Labour government it certainly would not be for sale.

“The truth is that to Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and other right-wing Tories, pushing us to a damaging no-deal Brexit means undermining a free, universal, public NHS.

“It would mean a trade deal where big US private healthcare conglomerates get involved in delivering NHS contracts, which I believe would undermine the free-at-the-point-of-use NHS we have in this country.

“The Americans have a system that checks your purse before it checks your pulse. That is the last thing we want in this country.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “Theresa May stood next to Donald Trump as he said the NHS will be ‘on the table’ in a US trade deal.

“And that’s what Tory leadership contenders and Farage are lining up for the no-deal disaster capitalism plans they have.

“They all need to understand our NHS is not for sale.”

Ms May’s deputy David Lidington, standing in for her at Prime Minister’s Questions, told the Commons that she had been “very clear and she spoke for everyone in the government and on this side of the house – when it comes to trade negotiations, the NHS is not and will not be up for sale.”