Theresa May challenged on NHS after Londoner denied cancer treatment

'How can it be possible that someone who lives and works in this country, pays their taxes, is denied access to live-saving treatment?'

Mr Corbyn's comments come after a 63-year-old man who has lived in London for 44 years was told he must produce a British passport or pay £54,000 for cancer treatment (PA)

Jeremy Corbyn has challenged the Prime Minister over healthcare charges handed to people not able to prove they have the right to live in the UK.

It comes after a 63-year-old man who has lived in London for 44 years was told he must produce a British passport or pay £54,000 for cancer treatment.

Albert Thompson, who arrived in the UK from Jamaica as a teenager, worked as a mechanic and paid taxes in the UK until becoming ill in 2008.

“If we believe in universal healthcare, how can it be possible that someone who lives and works in this country, pays their taxes ... is denied access to the NHS for live-saving treatment?” Mr Corbyn asked during Prime Ministers’ Questions. “Can the Prime Minister explain?”

Theresa May responded saying: “Of course we continue to work to ensure that the situation we’re putting in... that the treatments we’re making available are the best treatments that we can.”

She added: “I am not aware of the particular case that the right honourable gentleman has raised with me.”

Mr Thompson told The Guardian, which first reported his case, he had surgery for prostate cancer in January 2017 and was set to begin a course of radiotherapy last November.

But, when he arrived for his treatment, he was taken into a side room where a hospital administrator said he would have to produce a British passport or pay a £54,000 fee.

He said he was turned away when he was unable to pay for the radiotherapy and now he was concerned about how the disease had progressed.

“I don’t know what is going on inside; it is really worrying me. It feels like they are leaving me to die,” he told The Guardian.

Mr Thompson, who has not used his real name on legal advice, is one of a number of immigrants from Commonwealth countries who grew up believing themselves to be British.

But a number of anti-immigration policies have meant those from countries including Jamaica have needed to provide documents to prove they have a right to remain in the UK.

A spokesperson for The Royal Marsden hospital said: “Each NHS Trust in England is legally responsible for identifying and charging overseas visitors using NHS services where the patient cannot prove that they are ordinarily resident and legally entitled to live in the UK.

“Where care is deemed urgent or immediately necessary a patient will always be treated but must also be charged for the care received. In line with Department of Health guidance, from 23 October 2017 The Royal Marsden is now legally required to charge non-eligible patients in advance of any treatment.”

The Home Office said they had not been provided with enough information to investigate Mr Thompson’s case.