Clap for NHS as foreign workers surcharge scrapped in U-turn – The Yorkshire Post says

BORIS JOHNSON’S appreciation of NHS staff, carers and other key workers has become even more personal following his own brush with mortality.
Boris Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds clap for carers outside 10 Downing Street.Boris Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds clap for carers outside 10 Downing Street.
Boris Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds clap for carers outside 10 Downing Street.

It’s why his exultations every Thursday night on the steps of 10 Downing Street have become even more frenetic after lifesaving treatment for Covid-19.

Yet, given the Prime Minister is the first to admit that he owes his life to the brilliant care he received from medical staff from overseas who did not leave his bedside during the most critical hours, it was perplexing that it required a political revolt for Mr Johnson to ask foreign NHS and care workers to be removed from the immigration health surcharge.

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Thankfully common sense appeared to be prevailing last night just 24 hours after Mr Johnson defended the surcharge at PMQs which had been due to rise from £400 to £624. “We must look at the realities. This is a great national service – it is a national institution – that needs funding, and those contributions help us to raise about £900m,” he told Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

Boris Johnson shows his appreciation ofr the NHS on the steps of 10 Downing Street every Thursday night.Boris Johnson shows his appreciation ofr the NHS on the steps of 10 Downing Street every Thursday night.
Boris Johnson shows his appreciation ofr the NHS on the steps of 10 Downing Street every Thursday night.

Mr Johnson’s point about funding was a fair one, but was he suggesting that it is not possible to raise £900m by not cutting back some bureaucratic excess in the annual NHS budget of at least £134bn?

Yet, leaving aside the economics, there was also the moral case for some benevolence at this time as Tory MPs started to back Labour on this issue in significant numbers.

Without migrant workers, the NHS would not have been able to respond so heroically to this crisis. And, let’s face it, these staff do not earn a fortune once living costs are deducted. As such, this belated gesture is a small price to pay to avoid Mr Johnson’s weekly gesture looking hollow after he, himself, told MPs: “I have been a personal beneficiary of carers who have come from abroad and frankly saved my life.” Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

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Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

The Prime Minister leading the applause fr the NHS - but should overseas health workers be forced to pay a surcharge to access the NHS?The Prime Minister leading the applause fr the NHS - but should overseas health workers be forced to pay a surcharge to access the NHS?
The Prime Minister leading the applause fr the NHS - but should overseas health workers be forced to pay a surcharge to access the NHS?

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

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Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

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