‘Immoral and monstrous’: Boris Johnson under pressure to waive £624 healthcare charge on migrants working for NHS during coronavirus

Former Conservative chair Chris Patten says it would be 'madness and wickedness' to levy the fee on those fighting Covid-19 in NHS

Boris Johnson is coming under increasing pressure to waive a £624-a-year healthcare charge on migrants working in the NHS and social care during the coronavirus crisis, after a former chair of the Conservative party branded the levy “immoral and monstrous”.

Chris Patten urged the prime minister to drop the charge, warning it would be “madness and wickedness not to recognise the contribution which these people are making”.

His comments came after two senior Tory backbenchers spoke out against the prime minister’s refusal to drop the fee, with veteran MP Sir Roger Gale warning that failure to do so would be “mean-spirited, doctrinaire and petty” and select committee chair William Wragg calling for “generosity of spirit” on the issue.

And it came as the Royal College of Nursing revealed that UK nursing staff born overseas will have to work for a whole month to pay off the fee when it rises from the current £400 to £624 for adults and £470 for children in October.

A nurse with two dependents will be liable for a fee of £1,564 per year, leaving a newly-qualified nurse with £10 left over from pay of £1,574 for four weeks' work.

RCN general secretary Dame Donna Kinnair said: “Asking these professionals to pay twice is immoral, whatever the amount. But to ask them to work a month of gruelling shifts to cover this charge, especially right now, is outrageous.

“Hard-working nurses from overseas who give their all for patients in the UK must not be penalised in this way any longer.”

Meanwhile, Downing Street revealed that some NHS trusts are covering the cost of the charge for staff - meaning the health service is effectively paying to fund itself.

Mr Johnson's official spokesman had no figures for the numbers of trusts making payments, but told reporters: "Many NHS trusts have schemes in place where they choose to cover the cost of the surcharge for their staff ... If NHS trusts choose to do that that is of course a matter for them. But the money raised does go into the NHS."

And a Syrian refugee working as an NHS hospital cleaner who went viral with a video message to the PM on the treatment of migrant staff said that it will take him and his colleagues 10 days’ work to pay off the charge.

Hassan Akkad, a film-maker who signed up to work on a Covid-19 ward during the outbreak, got more than 3 million views for his clip protesting at the exclusion of cleaners and porters from a scheme to allow leave to remain for the families of those who die in service during the crisis Within hours, Home Secretary Priti Patel announced a U-turn on the scheme.

Mr Akkad told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I’m immensely proud to be doing this job because I know we are helping the NHS. Cleaners are as vital in the NHS as doctors and surgeons and consultants. I have been working at the hospital for 50 days and spend my time with cleaners and porters and social care workers and I see the bravery in their faces and how much they risk to continue doing these jobs despite being on minimum wage.

“For me to pay this fee I have to work 10 days. I am doing this job despite the risk … and for us to be charged to access the very same institution - the NHS - doesn’t make sense.

“It’s happening because the government doesn’t necessarily go to the corners of hospitals to meet these people who are bottom of the pyramid when it comes to payment and value and respect.”

And Lord Patten told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Emma Barnett show: “It’s appalling, it’s immoral. We depend in our care homes on people who come from other countries.

“I think this is monstrous that people who come from overseas to help and risk their lives in really difficult circumstances aren’t treated properly.

“There’s a basic sense of fair play in this country which I hope Mr Johnson will recognise. It would be madness and wickedness not to recognise the contribution which these people are making.

“It would be awful if we were to make people pay more when they are making such a big contribution to the well-being of older people in society.”

Labour leader Keir Starmer challenged Mr Johnson at prime minister’s questions in the Commons on Wednesday to drop the immigration health surcharge - currently £400 a year per family member but due to rise to £624 - for health and care workers on the frontline of the Covid response. Introduced in 2015, the levy comes on top of the regular taxes paid by migrant workers to fund their healthcare.

The PM insisted he understood the difficulties faced by foreign NHS staff, including those who “frankly, saved my life” when he was in intensive care with coronavirus.

But he said the charge raises £900 million a year for the NHS which it would be difficult to find from other sources, which made it “the right way forward”.

But Sir Roger today revealed that the £900m figure is the total amount raised from all immigrants and visitors to the country, while the sum paid by health and care workers amounted to “probably not more than £50m”.

“I am backing cross party calls for the Government to waive health charges levied upon immigrant workers in the NHS and social care services,” said the Conservative MP for North Thanet.

“I strongly believe that the £400 charge should be waived for those immigrants currently working in the health and care services and saving lives.

“To do otherwise would rightly be perceived as mean-spirited, doctrinaire and petty – and the prime minister has none of those failings.”

Mr Wragg, who chairs the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee, also called for the charge to be waived, saying: “Now is the time for a generosity of spirit towards those who have done so much good.”

The Hazel Grove MP said he was “sure” that Tory colleagues would be supportive of his stance.

Home Office minister James Brokenshire said the charge was “under review”, but insisted that the principle of migrants giving additional financial support to the NHS was “important.

He told the Today programme that it would be difficult to lift the charge for social care as they were not tied to a specific NHS trust and would have “disparate” levels of leave to remain in the UK.

“I’m just saying that it is complicated,” said Mr Brokenshire. “We continue to keep this under review but the principle of the NHS surcharge, the support that it provides financially to the NHS, and indeed that sense of contribution to the NHS, I think is important, and the prime minister I think was right to underline that in what he said yesterday.”