I am pleased to see that Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will pay fees for European Union (EU) citizens wishing to apply for ‘settled status’ post-Brexit, but has slammed the Conservative Government for putting EU nationals’ rights and NHS staffing in Surrey and Woking at risk.

Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust has announced that it will pay the fees to apply for settled status for its 400 staff from other EU countries.

This is a really positive announcement from the Ashford and St Peter’s Trust and I thank them for it, but it really beggars belief that the local NHS is having to offer to pay these fees in order to retain vital EU staff.  This situation should never have happened in the first place.

By this stage in the Brexit process, the Government should have unilaterally guaranteed all the rights of EU citizens post-Brexit and should be waiving settled status application fees for key workers in our NHS and social care sector.  We now know that due to the Government’s shambles over scrapping the vote on their Brexit deal, the NHS is now having to implement its no-deal planning and EU nationals living here are worried that they could lose their right to live here if we crash out of the EU in a no-deal scenario.

Our NHS and the 400 EU citizens that work at Ashford and St Peter’s deserve so much better than this shamefully chaotic Tory Government.  The decision about whether to continue with this shambles or to provide stability and certainty by staying in the EU should be put back to the people.  We need a People’s Vote now.