The U-turn
came a day after the government extended a scheme offering indefinite leave to
remain to families of all NHS staff who die as a result of contracting
coronavirus.
The decision
followed an emotional video from an NHS cleaner who said he felt
"betrayed" and "stabbed in the back" after the scheme was
initially offered only to certain occupations including nurses, biochemists and
radiographers.
Boris Johnson
has pledged to scrap the fee for foreign health and social care workers to
access the NHS "as soon as possible".
The move is a
swift U-turn from Wednesday, when the prime minister defended the policy,
saying it was "the right way forward" to boost NHS funds.
A Downing
Street spokesperson said Mr Johnson changed his mind because "he had been
a personal beneficiary of carers from abroad" when he was treated in
intensive care for coronavirus.
The
spokesperson explained: "The purpose of the NHS surcharge is to benefit
the NHS, help to care for the sick and save lives.
"NHS and
care workers from abroad who are granted visas are doing this already by the
fantastic contribution which they make."
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Hours
earlier, Downing Street had insisted the prime minister was standing by the
surcharge.
The change
will apply to all NHS workers, including porters, cleaners, independent health
workers and social care staff.
Originally,
care workers, cleaners and porters had been left out of the scheme.
Currently the
fee is £400 a year but that is set to rise to an annual sum of £624.
Labour leader
Sir Keir Starmer, who pressed for the change at Prime Minister's Questions on
Wednesday, said: "This is a victory for common decency and the right thing
to do.
"We cannot
clap our carers one day and then charge them to use our NHS the next."
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