Protest against president’s visit to Britain follows leaked trade papers discussing US firms muscling in on health service

Doctors and nurses have led protests in London against Donald Trump’s visit to Britain, a week after leaked papers surfaced showing that UK and US trade envoys had discussed dismantling NHS drug-price protection.

Demonstrators gathered in Trafalgar Square from 4pm on Tuesday, with NHS workers slated to lead them down the Mall towards Buckingham Palace, where the US president was due to meet the Queen and Boris Johnson at a reception for Nato heads of government.

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Sonia Adesara, a junior doctor and organiser of the NHS block that was to lead the demonstration, had started a petition calling on the government to keep the health service out of any post-Brexit trade deals. It has so far drawn more than a million signatures.

“The ideology of what Trump represents is everything that the NHS is not,” Adesara said before the demonstration began. “The NHS is about universalism, we care for everyone regardless of where they are from. Everyone is treated the same. Trump epitomises the complete opposite of that. That’s why NHS workers [are] protesting today.”

Damien Gayle (@damiengayle) “Our NHS, the values it represents, of kindness, of tolerance, the kindness it represents ... these values are crucial to our British society.”@SoniaAdesara, an nhs worker leading the #TrumpProtest on her fears about a trade deal with the US. #TrumpUKVisit pic.twitter.com/fWJ5Gh9qCa

The protest was called by a coalition of groups, including NHS workers, the Stop Trump Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Stop the War Coalition and Stand Up to Racism.

At a rally in Trafalgar Square speeches were given by Adesara, the writer Tariq Ali, and American activist Medea Benjamin, before protesters headed off on the march. In the event, Kurdish groups took the front of the march, chanting their opposition to the invasion of northern Syria by Turkey, a Nato member.

Police charged one group of protesters on the Mall after they tried to take down the Turkish flag, among the flags of Nato members raised for the summit.

Among those marching in solidarity with Syria’s Kurds was Ronak Yones, 60. She said: “Yesterday 10 children were killed in Rojava by an airstrike [when a] bomb hit their school.” She said Turkey’s president, Recep Erdoğan, was mobilising Islamist militias as his proxies in his war on the Kurds. “Nato means Erdoğan, Erdoğan means Isis,” she said. “The world needs to know they are connected.”

Damien Gayle (@damiengayle) “NATO means Erdogan, Erdogan means Isis. The world needs to know they are connected.”



Ronak Yones, 60, on the Kurdish solidarity block at the #TrumpUKVisit demo. #TrumpProtest pic.twitter.com/s12DIbLsBy

Police initially held the march back on the Mall but eventually people were permitted to go along the intended route of Canada Gate, opposite the palace.

Later demonstrators were expected to return to Trafalgar Square for a party staged by R3 Soundsystem, to include music from DJs including A Guy Called Gerald, Midland, Normski and Homobloc.

A spokesperson for R3 Soundsystem said: “As the alliance between Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage emerges, it is imperative that we call out this coordinated assault on the core values of this country and call out these men for what they really stand for. We will never allow haters, liars and racists to go unchallenged here in the UK. Music is our chosen weapon in this fight, and love is the message.”

Lindsey German, national convenor for the Stop the War, said: “Donald Trump’s aim is more spending on the military which means less on the NHS and schools. Nato expansion has been immensely costly in terms of finance and is growing tension across the world. It must stop now. Trump must go.”