Barry Gardiner MP, Labour’s Shadow Trade Secretary, responding to the publication of the summary of public responses to the government’s consultation on prospective trade agreements with Australia, New Zealand and the United States including potential accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, said:

“The British public have been completely clear: they want government to protect our NHS in any future trade agreements and they want to see our UK standards, rights and protections upheld.

“In the past people have seen trade agreements negotiated behind closed doors that have tried to whittle away the very things people value most – this is not acceptable.

“The government must set out precisely how they will ensure that there cannot be any lowering of our food, environmental, health, animal safety or labour standards as a consequence of future trade agreements.

“People have sent a powerful message to the government: our trade agreements must be negotiated with appropriate transparency and the full engagement and scrutiny of Parliament.”