The National Health Service in Britain, which is supported by the state, is heavily dependent on foreign labor. However, as candidates vie for votes ahead of Thursday’s general election, they have pledged to reduce immigration.
Both the center-left Labour Party, which is expected to win the national election, and the ruling right-wing Conservatives promise action on the crucial front, but they also aim to protect the UK’s beloved but overburdened National Health Service (NHS).
To combat the nation’s record levels of immigration, conservatives seek to raise the minimum wage needed to obtain a UK skilled worker visa; however, opponents claim this will make recruitment worse.
Labour wishes to recruit and train more UK staff, arguing that the NHS has been starved of cash by 14 years of Tory government and become too reliant on overseas staff.
The topic also grabbed voters’ attention after Brexit champion Nigel Farage last month took the helm of hard-right minority party Reform UK, which vows to freeze immigration altogether.
Yet from hospital wards and emergency departments to opticians and laboratories, foreign workers are vital to the NHS, which provides universal healthcare free at the point of delivery — but has been plagued in recent years by strikes over pay.
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