US health firms have boasted of “planting seeds” in the NHS, it has been revealed.

Open Democracy have uncovered 2016 comments by Larry Renfro, then chief executive of Optum, the healthcare services arm of America’s biggest private health insurer, UnitedHealth Group.

Mr Renfro, who is now Optum’s managing partner, told investors three years ago: “We’ve been planting seeds and I would say that we’re strong with the NHS.

“We’re strong with (health service regulator) NHS Improvement.

“We are getting stronger with the Minister of Health, as well as the Secretary of Health.”

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Optum’s executive vice president Jeffrey Berkowitz described the years Optum had spent building a “very strong foundation of work on the ground with the Department of Health”.

The revelations will fuel fears American companies have spent years preparing the ground to cash in on the UK health service.

Opponents fear negotiations for a post-Brexit, transatlantic trade deal will open the door to US firms.

UnitedHealth Group reported turnover of more than $226billion (£174billion) last year.

It opposes efforts in the US to introduce a universal, public health system like the NHS.

On its website, it describes itself as “a distinctively diversified health and wellbeing company headquartered in the United States, and a leader worldwide in helping people live healthier lives and helping make the health system work better for everyone”.

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It adds: “We are committed to introducing innovative approaches, products and services that can improve personal health and promote healthier populations in local communities.

“Our core capabilities in clinical expertise, advanced technology and data and health information uniquely enable us to meet the evolving needs of a changing health care environment.”

The website describes Optum as “a leading information and technology-enabled health services business dedicated to modernizing the system and improving the health of people and communities”.

The American President used a visit to London to insist he did not want to prey on our treasured health service.

But just six months earlier he boasted that “everything is on the table”, including healthcare, during post-Brexit trade talks.

Mr Trump’s latest intervention came as he took questions before meeting NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

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The pair are in the UK to mark the military alliance’s 70th birthday.

Asked if the NHS should be on the table in trade negotiations, Mr Trump said: “No, not at all, I have nothing to do with it - never even thought about it, honestly.”

He added: “I don’t even know where that rumour started.

“We have absolutely nothing to do with it and we wouldn’t want to if you handed it to us on a silver platter, we want nothing to do with it.”

(Image: Blend Images)

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Yet speaking during his State Visit to the UK in June this year, Mr Trump said: “When you’re dealing with trade everything is on the table, so the NHS or anything else, or a lot more than that.

“But everything will be on the table, absolutely.”

Boris Johnson was today again forced to deny the NHS would form part of UK-US trade negotiations as he hit the election campaign trail in Salisbury, Wilts.

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Mr Johnson claimed he could “categorically rule out” that “any part of the NHS will be on the table in any trade negotiations” - including pharmaceuticals.

He said: “This is pure Loch Ness Monster, Bermuda Triangle stuff.”

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But speaking on ITV’s This Morning, Labour leader Mr Corbyn stepped up his warnings about the President’s readiness to pile into the NHS.

He said: “ Donald Trump himself has said everything is on the table, including our National Health Service.”