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Virgin is to become the first private firm to run adult social care after winning a controversial £700million contract.

A Tory-led council last night agreed Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Care could run more than 200 NHS services.

But campaigners fear it is the start of the health service being sold off.

Cllr Eleanor Jackson said: “Make no mistake about it, what has happened here is the beginning of the privatisation of the NHS in this country.

“The Tories have let us all down and everyone should be horrified about this decision.

"Woe betide you getting ill in this area if you are old, disabled or have learning difficulties in the next seven years. It is just a horrifying decision.”

Protesters in the council chamber booed as Bath and North East Somerset councillors voted in favour of the landmark deal.

The decision was approved with 35 votes to 22. It came after a unanimously favourable vote by the council’s NHS Clinical Commissioning Group.

The decision has been the subject of controversy for months.

One protester who descended on the Guildhall in Bath before last night’s vote said: “This could be a huge watershed for healthcare in this country and finally realise the Tory dream of killing off the NHS once for all. We will be vocal in our outrage.”

(Image: Getty)

Hundreds of campaigners, including I, Daniel Blake film director Ken Loach, marched last month against the deal.

Public health nursing and speech and language therapy are also included in the contract. The council said it will have a clause requiring any financial surplus to be reinvested in services.

But Ruth Allen, of the British Association of Social Workers, said: “How long will that last, and how will surpluses be defined?”

She added: “How can they provide sustainable value on public money and highest quality when they need to show dividend returns to shareholders?”

Cllr Vic Pritchard, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health said the council followed “the recommendation of a wide range of service users, carers and subject matter experts who have dedicated hundreds of hours to scrutinising the bids and really understand how services need to change”.

A Virgin Care spokesman added: “We have been providing community health and care services for a decade, working with a range of partners to look after more than a million people a year.”

Services will be transferred from not-for-profit social enterprise Sirona to Virgin Care next April.