Reform UK Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf has accused successive Conservative and Labour governments of misleading the public over the impact of immigrant healthcare workers on Britain’s public services.
“The Tories and Labour told us migrant healthcare workers were a boon for Britain, shielding us from the consequences of an ageing population”, Yusuf said. “But the facts tell another story.”
He pointed to figures covering the year between March 2025 and March 2026, which show that Health and Care Worker visa holders from several countries were accompanied by substantially larger numbers of dependants.
During that period, 257 visas were issued to workers from Ghana, alongside 2,131 dependent visas. There were also 139 visas issued to Bangladeshi workers and 747 to their dependants, while 2,395 Indian workers were accompanied by 10,504 dependants.
These figures are particularly striking because they covered a period after Labour had promised that immigration would fall and enforcement would become tougher.
“The Health and Care Worker visa has been a monumental scam, with visa holders bringing extraordinary numbers of dependants who often do not work themselves”, he said.
“This same pattern shows up across a wide range of nationalities: for every health and care worker who may reduce the strain on our health system, we get between three and 10 dependants who increase it.”
Yusuf also cited government estimates suggesting that dependants associated with Health and Care Worker visa applicants impose an average net lifetime fiscal cost almost twice that of British citizens.
The headline figures for skilled workers conceal the wider population impact created by dependent visas. Although restrictions on care workers bringing family members have since been introduced, Yusuf said the figures demonstrated the long-term consequences of the system created under the Conservatives and continued under Labour.
“Mass migration does not support our public services, it crushes them”, he said.
“Yet the uniparty continues to make arguments it knows are lies, all in service of ensuring the floodgates remain open.”
Yusuf said Reform UK would pursue a fundamental overhaul of the immigration system.
“Reform will end this scam, abolish ILR [indefinite leave to remain] and reverse the Boriswave.”
“The Tories and Labour told us migrant healthcare workers were a boon for Britain, shielding us from the consequences of an ageing population”, Yusuf said. “But the facts tell another story.”
He pointed to figures covering the year between March 2025 and March 2026, which show that Health and Care Worker visa holders from several countries were accompanied by substantially larger numbers of dependants.
During that period, 257 visas were issued to workers from Ghana, alongside 2,131 dependent visas. There were also 139 visas issued to Bangladeshi workers and 747 to their dependants, while 2,395 Indian workers were accompanied by 10,504 dependants.
These figures are particularly striking because they covered a period after Labour had promised that immigration would fall and enforcement would become tougher.
“The Health and Care Worker visa has been a monumental scam, with visa holders bringing extraordinary numbers of dependants who often do not work themselves”, he said.
“This same pattern shows up across a wide range of nationalities: for every health and care worker who may reduce the strain on our health system, we get between three and 10 dependants who increase it.”
Yusuf also cited government estimates suggesting that dependants associated with Health and Care Worker visa applicants impose an average net lifetime fiscal cost almost twice that of British citizens.
The headline figures for skilled workers conceal the wider population impact created by dependent visas. Although restrictions on care workers bringing family members have since been introduced, Yusuf said the figures demonstrated the long-term consequences of the system created under the Conservatives and continued under Labour.
“Mass migration does not support our public services, it crushes them”, he said.
“Yet the uniparty continues to make arguments it knows are lies, all in service of ensuring the floodgates remain open.”
Yusuf said Reform UK would pursue a fundamental overhaul of the immigration system.
“Reform will end this scam, abolish ILR [indefinite leave to remain] and reverse the Boriswave.”
Photo by: Nappy.
