JEREMY CORBYN has warned that the Tories are using the coronavirus crisis as an excuse to privatise “large elements” of the NHS.

In an online Rally for Socialist Change on Saturday, the former Labour Party leader criticised the government for hiring private companies to provide services during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said: “The dangers of the privatisation of the NHS have never been greater than during the Covid crisis.

“There have been massive contracts already handed out to Serco and many other companies to deal with [contact] tracing or other elements.”

The Islington North MP criticised the mainstream media for having derided his efforts last year to expose a Tory government plot to put the NHS on the table in post-Brexit trade negotiations with the United States. 

At a packed press conference in November, copies of 451 pages of uncensored trade negotiation papers, which Mr Corbyn said proved that the government was ready to sell the NHS to US firms, were handed to journalists.

Mr Corbyn said: “What was the response from our [mainstream media]?

“Was it to thank me for releasing these documents and for putting them in the public domain and showing just what a threat to the NHS a Tory government was and a sweetheart trade deal with Donald Trump would be?

“No, they claimed that they were a Russian plant and [in] some way or another Russia was involved.”

The rally, watched by more than 1,400 people, was held exactly five years since Mr Corbyn was elected to lead Labour.

Looking back on his record, he said he was “proud” of government policy changes won during his leadership and his party’s apology for the Iraq War, as well as Labour’s policies for economic transformation, social justice, human rights, greater democracy, community organising, the environment and refugees’ welfare.