Boris Johnson is facing a growing rebellion from his own MPs and senior party figures over his decision to keep the NHS surcharge for migrant health and social care workers, as No 1o insisted it would not change course. Three influential Commons committee chairs have backed calls for the fee to be scrapped, or waived, including William Wragg, chair of the public administration and constitutional affairs committee, Bob Neill, chair of the justice select committee, and Robert Halfon, the education committee chairman.
The former Conservative party vice-chair and MP for North Thanet, Sir Roger Gale, said it would “rightly be perceived as mean spirited”, while Andrew Boff, a senior Tory on the Greater London assembly, said: “I’m very proud of my party but this is not its finest hour. These people have saved lives, then we give them a bill.” Gale tweeted: “I strongly believe that the £400 charge should be waived for those immigrants currently working in health and care services and saving lives.” The former Tory party chair Chris Patten said the fee would be “immoral and monstrous”. However, when asked about the discontent, Johnson’s spokesman repeated the prime minister’s defence of the levy in parliament on Wednesday. “I’d point you back to his words where he talked about accepting and understanding the difficulties faced by our amazing NHS staff, but also making the point that the NHS, as a great national institution, needs funding and that contributions made through the health surcharge had raised about £900m so far,” he said. Asked about the £900m figure, the spokesman said this covered the period from the surcharge being introduced in 2015 and the end of the 2018-19 financial year. He said he did not know how much of this had been contributed by health and care workers. He confirmed the planned rise in the fee from £400 now to £624 in October would go ahead: “It was a very clear manifesto commitment made by the government, and it’s on the basis of that manifesto that the prime minister won a significant majority.” Wragg was the first senior Tory to go public with his unease about the charge. He tweeted on Wednesday night: “Now is the time for a generosity of spirit towards those who have done so much good.” He said he was sure his party colleagues would support his stance.
Politicians and healthcare workers have called on the government to scrap the NHS surcharge for migrant care workers coming from outside the European Economic Area. Doctors, nurses and paramedics are currently exempt from paying the charge for one year. Neill told the Evening Standard that the charge was “a small sum in the overall scheme of things” and we should show generosity of spirit as a nation. Halfon said: “I hope the government thinks again on this surcharge, or at the very least, comes up with a payment scheme to ensure that all those NHS workers who are on low pay have higher wages and a better standard of living.” Tory MPs in Scotland and London are said to be uneasy with the fee as they are the regions that rely most heavily on migrant labour in the healthcare sector and where immigration policies can be hard to defend. Boff, who has previously run to be the Tory candidate for the mayor of London, said having to back the surcharge when knocking on doors in the capital would make him very uncomfortable and he does not intend to do so. “They can afford [to scrap it]. They have the money because they are working on borrowing by necessity,” Boff said. “We should absolutely look at this – we don’t require the NHS surcharge for people who have done national service for this country.” Labour, the Scottish National party and the Royal College of Nursing want health workers to be exempt from the “unfair” charge.
One Tory minister said he did not think that the odd Tory MP raising their concerns about the issue would lead to a full backbench backlash. “There will be questions and queries but when it comes down to it, I don’t think we’re heading for a large-scale rebellion,” he said.