The NHS will have to pay more for US medicine after Trump’s tariff threat – and critics claim billions will by siphoned off by Big Pharma
Trade’s on life support
Britain was promised Brexit would free us to strike better trade deals with America.
That promise now lies on life support as the cost of appeasing Donald Trump could now be counted not in tariffs or rows, but in lives. A drug pricing deal forcing the NHS to pay more to US pharmaceutical giants will drain billions from a service fighting for breath.
For decades, the NHS has used its buying power to keep medicine prices down for patients and taxpayers. That strength should have been protected, not sacrificed to a president squeezing allies for his own political gain.
Without fresh funding, there will be fewer nurses, scans, beds and operations, and more patients waiting until help comes too late. The projected toll is horrifying: 229,000 preventable deaths, rising to 291,000 when social care is included.
Those who sold Brexit as the route to stronger US deals should hang their heads in shame. They promised power. What has been delivered is anything but.
Clock Tikking
Our Save Lives for Sam campaign was born from grief and a simple demand: no more families should lose children to preventable water tragedies.
TikTok donating £400,000 of advertising credit to the RNLI and Royal Life Saving Society UK to raise awareness among its users comes, campaigners say, as no coincidence.
Social media is often criticised for the harm it can do but it can be a cause for good.
Simon Haycock, who lost his beloved son Sam, has turned pain into purpose. This support proves his campaign is being heard. Now the message must spread even further.
Az a go heroes
England scraped past DR Congo, and now a date with destiny awaits. The Azteca Stadium against Mexico, the scene of Maradona’s Hand Of God goal in 1986. Monday morning cannot come soon enough.