‘Under strain’ NHS will be in danger if we stay in Europe, warns minister

EU membership is putting ‘unsustainable pressure’ on the Health Service, a Cabinet minister claimed yesterday.

As a bitter referendum battle broke out over the NHS, employment minister Priti Patel seized on figures showing there were 475,000 live births to mothers from other EU countries between 2005 and 2014 – the equivalent of a city the size of Liverpool (population 465,000).

Leave campaigners estimate the cost of providing NHS services to those families could be more than £1.33 billion, making it a major factor behind the Health Service’s forecast £2.4 billion deficit. They also pointed to statistics showing that GP registrations had increased by 1.5million in the past three years alone.

The number attending accident and emergency also rose by 59 per cent between 2002- 2003 and 2014-2015 from 14 million to 22.4million. Miss Patel said: ‘It is becoming clear that our membership of the EU is putting the NHS under threat.

‘Every week we send £350million to Brussels – that’s money that could be better invested in helping patients who rely on our NHS. What we get back from the EU is a city the size of Newcastle (population 288,000) of new immigrants to the UK every year.

‘Current levels of migration are causing unsustainable pressures on our public services and we can see that the NHS is creaking under the strain.’

She was backed by former Tory leader Lord Howard, who dismissed claims made by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt that leaving the EU would put the NHS under pressure.

He said: ‘Jeremy Hunt says, as I understand his argument, that as our economy declines [if Britain leaves] we won’t have enough money to provide for the Health Service. Well, that’s myth.’

The exchanges show how both sides view the NHS as vital in gaining the support of voters. The In campaign claims that Britons would be forced to foot a £600million bill for overseas health care if we left. The European health insurance card gives Britons access to state-provided medical care on temporary stays abroad.