Disgruntled Tory faction warned their immigration plans will be disaster for NHS
Care providers have warned that a hard-right Tory faction's bid to stop giving visas to foreign care workers will only lead to more NHS chaos.
In a brazen challenge to Rishi Sunak, 20 disgruntled MPs who call themselves the New Conservatives said the party faces wipeout in the polls if it fails to drag down net migration, which is at a record high.
Their extreme proposals include scrapping a scheme fast-tracking workers in the care sector for visas.
This is despite care homes and providers battling massive labour shortages which have contributed to NHS backlogs and ambulance response times plummeting.
The group's list of demands had been set to be unveiled by Tory loudmouth Lee Anderson, but an audience was told he was "ill in bed".
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The proposals would put further pressure on the NHS, MPs have been told (file image) (Adam Gerrard / Sunday Mirror)The Homecare Association - which represents providers - says this would be disastrous, with members already reliant on foreign staff.
Chief executive Dr Jane Townson told The Mirror the vacancy rate is 12.6% and said: “If providers were unable to recruit internationally, they would have no choice but to turn down work as they cannot recruit the staff they need.
“This risks more people ending up in hospital unnecessarily and worsening NHS waiting lists.”
And Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said the care system is “on its knees”, stating: "The government has done nothing to solve the growing crisis in care.
“Now a group of its MPs want ministers to make things a whole lot worse.”
The New Conservatives today unveiled a list of demands including the call for a crackdown on foreign care workers.
Quizzed by The Mirror, group member Miriam Cates denied the move would be dangerous and reckless, saying: “The system as it is isn’t working.”
Tory Danny Kruger is among those calling for an immigration crackdown (PA)She added the country had "record levels of migration, and we've still not solved the care crisis".
Ms Cates called for more focus on training British carers, but Dr Howson said that for this to happen, ministers must invest by providing fair pay.
The row over immigration brings a bitter civil war within the Tory party to the fore.
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No10 said it has no intention of cutting the current system for foreign carers.
Ms Cates, MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, said: "We've got stagnant wages, stagnant productivity, we've got really difficult labour market conditions because of years and years of not investing in our own people.
"We are never going to realise the value of our own workers and upskill our own workers if we don't turn off the taps to mass legal migration."
The rebel group’s demands also include a cap on the number of refugees permitted per year at 20,000 and a limit on social housing awarded to immigrants.
Ms Cates told a New Conservatives event in Westminster: "We've not delivered on our promises and we must".
She warned of an "addiction to cheap foreign labour", which she blamed for soaring immigration levels.
Net immigration stood at 226,000 when Boris Johnson promised to bring it down, but it has risen to an all time high of 606,000 since then.
Tory MP Danny Kruger, who heads the New Conservatives group, said members are rallying against the "establishment" when it came to migration reforms.
He said: "There is an establishment in this country, which the Conservative leadership and our colleagues here are not part of, and that is the establishment that we're fighting against, that resists these proposals, particularly on immigration."
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