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Boris Johnson should scrap a hefty NHS fee for immigrants who work as carers in the UK, Labour has said. 

Keir Starmer challenged the prime minister over the government’s “health immigration surcharge”, which is set to rise from £400 to £624 in October, saying overseas NHS workers and carers should be exempt. 

The rise in the surcharge, announced at the budget, has been controversial, and comes as the UK continues to rely heavily on migrant workers during the Covid-19 crisis. 

Speaking during prime minister’s questions in the Commons, Starmer said it would take a care worker being paid the National Living Wage – currently £8.21 an hour – about 70 hours, which is nearly two working weeks, to pay off that fee.

But Johnson said the charge was “the right way forward” in order to raise funds for the health service.  

Starmer said: “Every Thursday we go out and clap for our carers. Many of them are risking their lives for the sake of all of us.

“Does the prime minister think it’s right that care workers coming from abroad and working on our frontline should have to pay a surcharge of hundreds – sometimes thousands – of pounds to use the NHS themselves?”

Labour has said its MPs will now try to amend the government’s immigration bill to exempt NHS staff and care professionals from this charge. 

Johnson, who has recently recovered from a stint in intensive care after he was struck with coronavirus, said he had “thought a great deal” about the surcharge, adding: “I’ve been a personal beneficiary of carers who have come from abroad and, frankly, saved my life.”

But he went on: “On the other hand we must look at the realities – this is a great national service, it’s a national institution, it needs funding and those contributions actually help us to raise about £900m, and it’s very difficult in the current circumstances to find alternative sources.

“So with great respect to the point [Starmer] makes, I do think that is the right way forward.”

Starmer replied he was “disappointed” as the PM knows “how raw” the issue is, underlining the huge rise planned for October. 

“For a care worker on the national living wage that will require working for 70 hours to pay off the fee,” he added.