Britain's battered industrial base could be “hollowed out” by a trade deal between the European Union and the US, Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards warned Parliament yesterday.

Mr Edwards expressed grave concerns that the deal will mean bigger profits for US businesses and cuts to jobs and wages on this side of the Atlantic in a “Marxist critique” of the deal.

He explained that the fracking boom in the US will allow its government to offer industry energy subsidies — lowering their production costs and giving them an advantage in the market.

“This will mean that US companies would be at a huge advantage in being more competitive in any EU-US free-trade area,” said the Carmarthen West and Dinefwr MP.

“I would go as far as to say that if there is a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), this advantage available to the US could lead to the stripping of my country’s already diminished manufacturing base.

“Plaid Cymru would be opposed to any deal that ended up favouring big corporations and allowed the further hollowing out of industrial sectors of the Welsh economy.”

Mr Edwards has been part of the the all-party Parliamentary group investigating the planned trade agreement.

Labour MP and group chairman John Healy told the Backbench Business Committee debate that the NHS must be exempt to protect it from privatisation.

“What is required here is a simple statement from the government that they will be doing all they can to secure an exemption for the NHS in TTIP,” he said.

“I’m afraid that otherwise, because of the government’s top-down reorganisation of the NHS, concerns will continue that their agenda is actually the further privatisation of health services.”

Both MPs also warned that a deal could allow US privateers to sue European governments that democratically decide to renationalise their assets through an investor-state dispute settlement.

But Mr Healy added that trade unions saw the opportunities for increased trade to boost demand, particularly in manufacturing, and said increasing exports was crucial for a real economic recovery.