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Over 230,000 people have signed a petition demanding that the government make sure that the NHS is not up for grabs in any post-Brexit trade negotiations.

The petition was started by NHS doctor Sonia Adesera and has gone viral overnight.

In her petition Dr Adesera writes: "This is a serious and direct threat to the NHS that we all know and love - so I’m calling on our government to guarantee that our health service will never form part of trade deal with America.

As an NHS doctor I know how valuable our health service is. First and foremost I care about my patients.

She added that any deal which opened up the NHS to American healthcare companies "could be the beginning of the end for high quality healthcare for all in the UK".

It come after the US President performed a screeching U-turn on his claims that the NHS would be 'on the table' in a Brexit trade deal.

The US President rowed back on his comments, made at a live international press conference, after they led to public outrage.

(Image: Getty)

Keep Our NHS Public Co-Chair and retired Paediatrician Dr Tony O’Sullivan said: “Don’t be fooled by Trump’s bully boy antics to disrupt and then pretend to backtrack: there is no way he’s taking the NHS ‘off the table’.

"He believes his own lies - like Farage. He will exploit the NHS unless we continue to shout about it. Trump, Farage and Liam Fox all want a fully commercialised NHS.

"Trump said last year that the NHS as a public system was “not working”, but the strength of feeling here by British people shows they clearly do not agree

"We demand our Government guarantees that the NHS is a public service outside of all trade deals.”

Labour MP Stephen Doughty tweeted: "He’s a liar - no one’s going to believe his belated comments on NHS."

Trump's remarks to ITV's Piers Morgan lob a fresh grenade into the Brexit debate just as he departs from a three-day £40million State Visit.

Standing alongside Theresa May yesterday, Trump said the NHS and "a lot more" would be up for grabs in a “phenomenal” trading relationship after Brexit.

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When a journalist asked him if US firms' access to the NHS was on the table for a deal, Theresa May had to lean over and explain the question.

The President then confirmed: “I think everything with a trade deal is on the table.

“So NHS or anything else, or a lot more than that. But everything will be on the table, absolutely.”

The President's comments came just two days after his own Ambassador, Woody Johnson, said healthcare would be on the table in a trade deal.

They sparked fears of mass privatisation as Jeremy Corbyn said: “Our NHS is not for sale.”

Yet now Mr Trump has backtracked on his comments in an interview with Piers Morgan of ITV's Good Morning Britain.

He said: "I don’t see it being on the table.

"Somebody asked me a question today and I say everything’s up for negotiation because everything is.

"But I don’t see that being…That’s something that I would not consider part of trade. That’s not trade."

(Image: PA)

Labour's leader told a Whitehall protest yesterday: "We will fight with every last breath of our body to defend the ­principle of a healthcare system free at the point of need for everybody as a human right."

And GMB health union chief Rehana Azam said before Trump's U-turn: “President Trump is just waiting to get his hands on our NHS. There’s a very real danger Conservatives will just hand it over to him in a trade deal.

The British Medical Association issued a statement urging all Tory leadership hopefuls to exclude the NHS from any post-Brexit talks.

Matt Hancock, Jeremy Hunt and even right-wing free marketeer Dominic Raab all did.

(Image: Alex McBride)

Trump and Piers Morgan developed a relationship when the former Mirror editor appeared on the US version of the Celebrity Apprentice.

The 30-minute interview took place in the Churchill War Rooms barely an hour after the press conference yesterday.

It took place in front of the generator that helped power the fight back against the Nazis and Adolf Hitler.

It has now aired hours before the end of the President's three-day State Visit to the UK.

During the wide-ranging interview with Good Morning Britain, he also spoke about Jeremy Corbyn , Prince Charles, The Queen, Iran and more.

It comes ahead of a major ceremony in Portsmouth, with 15 world leaders, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day at the culmination of the President's State Visit.