UNITE will present ministers with legal advice today showing “beyond doubt” that the TTIP trade deal seriously threatens the future of the NHS.

The union instructed Michael Bowsher QC to prepare legal advice on the EU-US pact, which is being negotiated in secret.

The silk found that TTIP’s procurement rules could force the the NHS to contract out services and poses a threat to future governments over public ownership of the health service.

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said: “This legal advice shows beyond doubt that the NHS is at risk from the European trade deal with America.

“Unite will be presenting compelling evidence to the government which should spur politicians into action and protect the NHS from TTIP.

“The UK government has no right to allow EU bureaucrats to negotiate away our ability to control the future of our NHS.

“David Cameron has the power to exclude the NHS from the trade deal — he must act and prevent the irreversible sale of our NHS.”

But the government showed no signs of listening to the widely held public concerns.

A Business Department spokesman claimed the deal “cannot force the UK to privatise public services or prevent it from regulating in the public interest, and any suggestion to the contrary is both irresponsible and false.

A 12th round of TTIP negotiations is set to start in Brussels this week, including talks on a series of settlements that would give foreign investors exclusive rights over certain state deals.

Poverty charity War on Want’s executive director John Hilary branded the contents of the deals “an outrageous assault on our democratic rights and freedoms, and only multinational corporations stand to benefit from it.”