Parliament and people power forces government climb down on TTIP

Date: 20 May 2016

In response to David Cameron’s capitulation on the TTIP amendment to the Queen’s Speech, Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now said:

“This is an incredibly swift and somewhat embarrassing u-turn for the government, which was about to suffer its first defeat over the Queen’s Speech in 92 years. MPs have repeatedly tried to assure the general public that the NHS is entirely safe from TTIP, but experience from similar trade deals in other countries shows that public health services have been attacked. If the government is now admitting that the NHS does need protecting from TTIP after two years of strenuously denying it, it shows how little weight is carried by their other attempts to reassure the public over TTIP.

“For some rebel MPs this amendment was about Brexit. But MPs from all parties have been rejecting the government’s extreme approach to fast tracking toxic trade deals that would have a devastating impact on public services, labour rights and environmental and consumer protections in the UK.

Across Europe, senior political figures and national parliaments have started to take very visible steps backwards from TTIP in response to the controversy and unpopularity of the deal. Cameron is in a trickier position as he has vocally positioned himself as both an originator and a champion of the deal.”