CAMPAIGNERS have slammed the government’s “sickening” decision to block protections for the NHS from the Trade Bill, which passed through the Commons on Monday night. 

Last-ditch attempts by the Green Party and Labour to rule the NHS out of a future trade deal with the US were thwarted when MPs voted down a key amendment by 340 votes to 251.

The proposal would have banned any deal seeking to undermine the status of the NHS as a public-funded service, free at the point of delivery, and would have protected it “from any form of control from outside the UK.”