Sir Keir Starmer is facing an embarrassing split on increasing migrant fees to fund doctors pay rises after it emerged a hard-left Labour MP suggested global free access to the NHS.
Kate Osborne branded the government’s immigration health surcharge as “racist” and “divisive”.
But her remarks set up a potentially uncomfortable row for Sir Keir, who has previously resisted similar calls from trade unions to oppose the immigration health surcharge.
Last month the government announced that it would increase the charge – a fee paid by international workers in the UK to access NHS services – up from £624 to £1,035 a year and use the money to fund an up to 10.3 per cent pay rise for doctors.
In response, Ms Osborne, the Labour MP for Jarrow and a leading figure in the hard-left Socialist Campaign Group, told a seminar for radical campaigners that making migrants pay towards their use of the NHS was a “disgusting racist policy” and a “deliberate attempt to incite hatred”.
She told the How We Save Our NHS – A Socialist Campaign Group Seminar: “And to further add insult to injury, to that part of the pay rise that is funded will be paid for by increasing fees by migrant workers.
“This disgusting racist policy is another strand of their incitement of hatred of others, BAME communities, LGBTQ plus people. I saw many describing this policy as borderline racist. “Well there is no borderline, it’s racist and it’s deliberately divisive.
Deliberately divisive and unworkable, just like their illegal immigration bill and their anti-strike bill that I’m opposing tonight.
Ministers know the impact that their language, policies and guidance has on society. They brief that we will give a pay rise and charge migrants more. Its just another deliberate attempt to insight hatred as part of the government’s war on woke.”
Sir Keir is likely to face growing discontent amongst his MPs over Labour’s position on the policy. Those on the party’s left are likely to pressure him to change his position and may point to Keir’s own record as a young lawyer when he argued that all controls on immigration were racist to try and get his support for an open-door NHS.
A Conservative source said: “Increasing the immigration health surcharge so it better reflects the costs incurred in providing treatments to migrants and using this to fund an up to 10.3% pay rise for doctors is the right thing to do.
“Labour MPs are clearly out of step with the public on this – and don’t share the same priorities as the people, be that cutting waiting times or stopping the boats.”
Sir Keir has previously called all immigration controls racist.
Writing a review of Immigration Law and Practice for a 1988 edition of Socialist Lawyer magazine, he claimed there is a “racist undercurrent” which “permeates all immigration law”.
