Conservative MPs across the county have collectively voted down a Commons amendment designed to protect the NHS being subject to any form of control from outside the UK in a future post-Brexit trade deal.

After casting his vote Neil Hudson MP for Penrith and The Border said: "The opposition amendment to the trade bill on the NHS was completely unnecessary.

"The government has been clear, as articulated by the Prime Minister, the Health Secretary and the International Trade Secretary, that the NHS has never been and never will be on the table for any trade deals.

"This includes the price the NHS pays for drugs and the services that the NHS provides: these are definitely not on the table in any trade deals, hence this amendment to the bill was not needed."

Workington MP Mark Jenkinson was unable to cast his vote on Monday – “I had constituency engagements so I was not able to be in Westminster this week,” he said.

But he would have voted in the same lobby as his Cumbrian Conservative colleagues.

Opposition MPs had put forward the amendment to the Government’s Trade Bill which would have barred any deal which “undermines or restricts” a comprehensive public-funded health service.