THE Conservative Party’s parliamentary candidate for Barrow in December’s fast-approaching general election has hit out at Labour’s ‘scaremongering’ over the NHS.

Simon Fell, who narrowly lost out on the Barrow and Furness seat in 2017’s snap poll, said of Labour’s own healthcare proposals: “Jeremy Corbyn is proposing a reckless policy that makes a good headline but will cause real damage to local jobs and to the UK’s competitiveness.”

Labour promises a 4.3% real terms annual increase in the health budget over the next parliament, which would see the biggest funding increase for the NHS for over a decade.

Mr Fell’s comments come after a column by Lord Darzi in The Times this week, in which the peer and former Labour Health Minister said that he sees “no evidence that the NHS and drug prices would be on the table in a [trade] negotiation”.

Last week, Labour made public a dossier of UK-US trade talks it said was ‘evidence that under Boris Johnson the NHS is on the table [in US negotiations] and will be up for sale’.

Mr Fell also said that Labour’s plans for the health service would force pharmaceutical companies to surrender their intellectual property, hitting firms like the pharmaceutical multinational GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which has a branch in the Furness area.

He said: "Lord Darzi lays the risk of Jeremy Corbyn to the NHS bare: increases in drug prices, restricted availability of key drugs, and scaremongering that affects morale and trust.

“As the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry says, the Labour manifesto would ‘damage the UK’s research base’ which ‘underpins thousands of highly skilled jobs and helps the UK compete on a global stage.’

Chris Altree, Labour’s candidate for Barrow in the general election, hit back at Mr Fell's comments by saying: “Simon Fell shows a remarkable ignorance of the local situation. GSK is selling its Ulverston site. Labour’s proposals to commission the manufacture of generic (out-of-patent) drugs gives a huge opportunity to keep pharmaceutical manufacturing in Ulverston.

“Under his Tory government we are experiencing the worst shortages of key drugs that we have ever seen. Drugs vital to people’s health and well-being are in short supply or not available at all, because of profiteering by the pharmaceutical industry.

“Lord Darzi is being wilfully blind if he sees no evidence that the NHS and drug prices are on the table. Donald

Trump has said he wants to have them included in negotiations. Why did a Tory government allow officials to enter any discussion on this – and why have they refused to rule this out?”