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Treatments for cancer, arthritis and multiple sclerosis (MS) are among drugs costing the cash-strapped NHS over a billion pounds a year – despite public funding playing a substantial role in the medicines’ development.

The Trade Justice Movement has welcomed the government’s recognition in its trade white paper, released yesterday, of the need for trade policy to be “transparent and inclusive”. However it has criticised the government’s commitments so far as woefully inadequate, in particular the lack of any clear role for parliament in scrutinising trade deals.

Responding to the news that UK banks are to check 70 million bank accounts as part of Theresa May's attempts to create a 'hostile environment' towards migrants, Aisha Dodwell, a migration campaigner with Global Justice Now said:

CETA is a corporate dominated deal, the purpose of which is to reduce regulation on business. It is likely to lead to a race to the bottom in standards on food safety, environmental regulations and workers’ rights, and it will lock in the privatisation of public services.
 

Campaigners from Another Europe is Possible and Global Justice Now slammed the EU Withdrawal Bill (formerly known as the Great Repeal Bill) today as “the biggest threat to parliamentary democracy in decades”. Campaigners dressed in Tudor costumes stood outside parliament to protest the widespread use of ‘Henry VIII’ powers in the bill, which give extraordinary powers to government ministers to ‘translate’ large elements of EU law into UK law. They fear that during this ‘translation’ vital rights and protections could be watered down.