Ten of the United Kingdom’s largest trade unions have launched a joint campaign to stop what they describe as the coalition government’s “controversial” health white paper Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS.

Unions representing around four million workers, including Unison, Unite, and the GMB, have come together with grassroots health campaigners and patients’ groups in a coordinated move against the new reforms, which were unveiled in July.

Organised by the NHS Support Federation, an independent pressure group that aims to protect and promote the NHS, the campaign warned in its launch statement that the NHS was under threat. The campaign aims to mobilise NHS staff and patients against the white paper to exert pressure on MPs …