Brexit blocking cancer treatments, slashing jobs & isolating Scotland
by Europe Day saw the SNP calling for urgent clarity and action from the UK government following alarming reports that Brexit is severely undermining doctors ability to offer NHS patients new cancer drugs and treatments.
The devastating consequences of Brexit continue to mount, from blocking access to life-saving cancer treatments, to hiking the cost-of-living and undermining family travel.
A leaked report has revealed that cancer patients in the UK are being denied access to life-saving medicine and that trials for cutting-edge treatment are being derailed due to increased red tape and spiralling costs created by Brexit.
Meanwhile, the long-term consequences of Brexit continue to deepen across public services, the economy and everyday life.
- Prices are rising as trade barriers drive up import costs.
- Scottish exporters face tariffs, paperwork, and lost markets, threatening jobs and livelihoods.
- There are labour shortages in key sectors like agriculture and healthcare as freedom of movement has ended.
- Scotland’s universities have lost out in terms of EU students, access to EU research funding and collaboration, with the Horizon programme only partially reinstated.
- Families face soaring travel costs, longer border delays, and diminished consumer rights when visiting EU countries.
- The tourism industry in the UK has also been hit with spending sharply down.
- Rural communities, once supported by EU development funds, have seen investment slashed under inadequate UK replacements.
Despite these mounting problems, Keir Starmer’s Labour continues to back Brexit whilst tying the UK into trade negotiations with America – a scenario making the UK beholden to Donald Trump’s whims.
This situation leaves the SNP as the only party in Scotland credibly offering a clear route back to the EU.
SNP MSP Clare Haughey MSP, a former nurse, said that it was “utterly indefensible that cancer patients in Scotland are being denied access to life-saving treatments because of Brexit.”
She described this situation as a direct consequence of Brexit and decisions made at Westminster – decisions which Scotland rejected.
Ms Haughey continued, “Our NHS staff are doing their best under impossible circumstances, but they are being forced to navigate red tape and rising costs that are putting lives at risk.”
She described Brexit as not just a political error but “a slow motion crisis” and added, “It is making people poorer, isolating our NHS, harming Scottish businesses, and stealing opportunities from our young people.”
The SNP MSP concluded by saying, “Scotland did not vote for this and we should not be forced to accept it. Labour’s broken Brexit Britain is failing, and only independence can give us the tools to build a better future, back in the heart of Europe.”