DEMONSTRATIONS took place across Britain at the weekend against an international trade deal which will hand power to multinational corporations.

Protesters lined the streets of more than 600 towns, cities and villages across Britain against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), currently being negotiated behind closed doors by governments, including those of Britain, the US and the European Union.

TTIP will enable international corporations to sue governments who enact legislation which the corporations deem interferes with their reaping of profits.

For example, if health and safety regulations are deemed by a company to affect the profits of factories it operates in any of the countries which are signatory to the deal, the company will be able to sue that government and demand compensation.

TTIP poses a huge threat to Britain’s NHS, which is being systematically privatised and is in danger of becoming a “cash for treatment” system on the lines of the United States’ profit-driven model.

However opposition to the proposed deal is growing.

Online campaign 38 degrees is running a protest petition to be presented to coalition government Business Secretary Vince Cable.

The petition had more than 156,000 signatures yesterday. The target 175,000.

Among the protests was a stall in the town of Hebden Bridge in the the Yorkshire Pennines, where a steady stream of people signed up to oppose TTIP, including Anne Scargill and Betty Cook, founder members of the Women Against Pit Closures movement.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “US health companies will even have the right to sue a future UK government in secret courts if politicians try to reverse privatisation.

“The most significant effect will be felt in health, enabling US healthcare multinationals and Wall Street investors to sue the UK government in secret courts if it attempts to reverse privatisation.

“David Cameron can exempt the NHS from these trade negotiations. Unless the Prime Minister acts, bureaucrats in Brussels and Washington will make the sell-off of our NHS irreversible.”