Boris Johnson news: Care home workers excluded from ‘shambolic’ new NHS visa, as Brexit ad blitz warns of higher travel cost

Minister challenged over health surcharge

Labour MP Rushanara Ali has said that it was an “added insult” for migrant health and social care workers that it is taking so long to exempt them from the health surcharge.

Ali said: “The fact that migrant workers in the NHS and care sector have had to pay the surcharge in the first place is an insult to their sacrifices and the fact that the government is taking so long to implement the promise that the prime minister made is an added insult.

“Can I ask [Home Office minister Kevin Foster] how many people have actually now got the exemption and how many are left to receive it?”

Foster responded: “Refund payments have already started and we are imminent to implement the new health and care visa which will see those under it exempt. So work is continuing and to be clear, the health surcharge is about creating resources for the NHS and has supported the NHS.

“But we’ve announced this policy and we’re driving it forward.”

Care sector should 'prioritise jobs here in the UK', says minister

Home Office minister Kevin Foster has accused the care sector of relying on minimum wage workers from overseas rather than prioritising jobs in the UK.

He was responding to a question from shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds, who asked: "After the Prime Minister accused care workers of not following the guidance on Covid-19 and now this, can the Home Secretary please answer a simple question: What does the Government have against care workers?"

Mr Foster replied: "We have every support for our care workers and senior care workers will qualify under the new points-based system.

"And what I'd say to (Nick Thomas-Symonds) is that people will look at what has happened over the last few months and think that surely the vision for the social care sector is not to carry on looking abroad to recruit at or near the minimum wage when we need to prioritise jobs here in this country."

Mr Foster added: "We are engaging regularly with the care sector, we're listening to what they said, but our priority is that these jobs should be valued, rewarded and trained for, not immigration be an alternative to that."

He later said: "Our vision for the future of the care sector is about providing rewarding opportunities to UK based workers, not being based purely on immigration."

New rules 'will affect patient care', says nursing union

Much of the criticism of the government's new immigration policy focuses on the existing shortage of care staff in the UK.

Royal College of Nursing chief executive Dame Donna Kinnair said: "Once again, we are disappointed to see the government's plans for the UK's future immigration system falling short of what is required to meet the workforce needs of the health and social care sectors, now and in the future.

"The government is ignoring our concern that we need an appropriate immigration route for social care workers. Arbitrary salary thresholds will prevent key workers from working in the UK, which will directly impact patient care."

Chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) Satbir Singh said: "The very same people who've risked their lives to keep our country going would have no safe route of entry to the UK.

"We've gone from clapping for our key workers to calling them low-skilled in a few short weeks."

Responding to the new rules, trade union Unison assistant general secretary Christina McAnea said: "The sector is desperately short of staff and heavily reliant on the skills of overseas workers. Recruitment will now become even harder."

New immigration rules ‘put us in a terrible position for a post-Brexit world’

Thom Brooks, Professor of Law and Government at Durham University, says the new immigration rules announced today still leave “much remaining unknown, to be decided some other time”.

He writes: “Less than five months from leaving the EU, this is a very poor position to be left in … What we have here is a few pieces but nothing stitched together yet – we are not as far forward as we should be as the clock towards Brexit continues to tick.”

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More Brexit customs centres to be built

Up to a dozen inland customs centres similar to the controversial planned lorry park in Ashford, Kent, are to be built to deal with the expected additional bureaucracy at ports caused by Brexit, it has been revealed.

The plans emerged as it was confirmed that the UK government expects businesses to complete an additional 400 million import and export customs declarations as a result of Brexit, at a cost previously estimated by HM Revenue and Customs at anything up to £20 billion a year.

Michael Gove is taking questions in the House of Commons after giving an update on the progress of the government's preparations for the end of the Brexit transition period.

The Cabinet Office minister told MPs: "From January 1 2021 we will embark on the next chapter in our history as a fully independent United Kingdom.

"With control of our economy we can continue to put in place the right measures for Covid recovery. With control over the money we sent to Brussels we can spend it on our priorities, investing in the NHS, spreading opportunity more equally across the UK and strengthening our union."

He added: "Regardless of the outcome of the negotiations with the EU over our future relationship, whether or not we have a Canada-style deal or an Australian model, we will be leaving the single market and the customs union."

Mr Gove said specific guidance on Northern Ireland "will be published in the coming weeks and on an ongoing basis throughout the transition period."

He added: "The actions we're taking today are an important step towards readiness for the new opportunities that Brexit can bring. It is time for our new start, time for us to embrace a new global destiny."

'A picture of chaos, complacency and confusion'

Shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Rachel Reeves said a leaked letter from International Trade secretary Liz Truss to Michael Gove "presents a picture of chaos, complacency and confusion right at the top of Government."

Ms Reeves told MPs: "It is vital that businesses and jobs are supported and that the oven ready deal that the country was promised is delivered upon this year, and yet frankly, many of us are worried about whether the oven was even turned on.

"There have been alarm bells ringing within the Cabinet this last week expressed by the Trade Secretary in her extraordinary letter to (Mr Gove) and to the Chancellor of the Exchequer written on 8 July."

She added: "Can the minister give the country and indeed his Cabinet colleague reassurance by publishing all relevant delivery plans, land purchases and rental agreements with time scales and risks and not just for the port of Dover.

"The Labour Party want to see British firms exporting, we do not want to see their goods stuck at ports or indeed in lorry parks."

Michael Gove confirmed there were no plans to build a new lorry park in Dover - although he admitted that the planned inland sites have not yet been finalised.

"I should stress that there are no plans to build a new lorry park at Dover," he told parliament after being asked by shadow minister Rachel Reees.

He added: "It is time that we modernised our border, time that we took back control and that is what today's announcement will do."

Unison leader to stand down after 20 years

The leader of the UK’s largest union, Unison, is to stand down at the end of the year after 20 years as general secretary.

Dave Prentis took up the leadership of the 1.3 million-member public sector union on 1 January 2001 and was re-elected in 2005, 2010 and 2015.

He was praised for his “outstanding leadership” by Sir Keir Starmer, whose bid for the Labour leadership this year was given a significant boost by an early endorsement from Unison.

Michael Gove's statement has prompted questions about whether the new inland lorry parks will be used for checks on goods leaving the UK as well as entering the UK.

The minister said there would be no lorry park at Dover itself but did not directly answer the question posed by Labour MPs.