Boris Johnson used taxpayer funds to host the launch of a hard-right think-tank that now campaigns for US corporations to run NHS services.

A new video by the campaign group Led By Donkeys discloses that Johnson hosted the launch of the Institute for Free Trade (now the Initiative for Free Trade) in the Foreign Office map room, while he was Foreign Secretary.

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Audio from the event confirms this, with Johnson openly welcoming guests to the Foreign Office. Led By Donkeys claim that Johnson let the think-tank use the room for free, and let the taxpayer pick up the £6,000 tab.

Indeed, emails show that Sue Gray, the Cabinet Office director general of propriety and ethics, insisted that the institute should have paid a full commercial fee for holding the reception, but didn’t.

Since its launch, the IFT has advocated a range of controversial opinions – not least that the NHS should be opened up to America healthcare companies.

The institute published a 239-page report on the sort of post-Brexit trade deal we should try to negotiate with Trump’s America – saying there should be “zero restrictions on competition for government procurement”.

The group has also argued that US firms should be allowed to run UK hospitals, under any future free trade agreement.

In his speech at the launch of the IFT, Johnson called the think tank a “crucial, crucial” initiative and said that Brexit was an opportunity for the UK “to resume its historic function as the world’s leading campaigner and agitator for free trade.”

Although many of these details have been revealed before, Johnson will not want them to be given prominence again, particularly given the PM has repeatedly insisted that the NHS will not (and should not) be put up for sale in a free trade deal with the United States.

It seems many of Johnson’s closest friends and political allies think differently.

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