Britons now believe immigration is more of a burden than a benefit to the country’s creaking NHS. New polling reveals 49% of people think this is a case, with a mere 22% saying immigration is more of a benefit to the health service.

Champions of immigration have long insisted the NHS depends on workers from overseas. About one in five NHS staff in England has a nationality other than British, according to the House of Commons Library. The most common nationalities in the NHS last year were British (1.2million), Indian (79,400), Filipino (35,540), Nigerian (40,575) and Irish (13,840). Research from Merlin Strategy and the Prosperity Institute shows strong scepticism that immigration is good for the NHS.

Scepticism was highest among Reform voters, with nearly three in four seeing immigration as an overall burden for the health service. This was the view of 56% of Conservatives.

Labour voters were split, with 36% seeing immigration as a net positive for the NHS and one in three saying it is a burden. London has the highest proportion of NHS staff with non-UK nationality (32%), according to the Commons Library research. The lowest share is in the North East and Yorkshire (13%). The share of staff with overseas nationalities is highest for doctors (36%) and nurses (30%) than for staff overall (19%).

Five thousand people were polled across Great Britain.

Fred De Fossard, director of strategy at Prosperity Institute, spoke about the shocking reason people think immigration is damaging the NHS.

“The effects of immigration on the health service has been a hotly contested issue for many years,” he said.

“In the wake of the botched Health and Care Visa – which saw more dependents come to the UK instead of workers, large-scale fraud, and no reduction in waiting lists – the public are disillusioned and now believe that immigration is more of a burden than a benefit to the health service.

“This has been years in the making, and it is coming to a head after record immigration. Any party looking to fix the health service and win back public trust on the issue must present a clear plan for training more British doctors and nurses, and ensuring that the NHS puts British patients and taxpayers first.”

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Mass immigration has put immense strain on public services themselves, particularly healthcare. We must embrace British doctors and nurses by creating an environment where they will stay and work in the UK, rather than moving overseas for work.

“The Conservative Party has put forward serious plans to bring immigration numbers down for good – a hard annual cap on visas, doubling the residency requirement for Indefinite Leave to Remain from five to 10 years, and changing the criteria for ILR so we can remove those who do not contribute. That is how you restore control and relieve pressure on services.”

Alp Mehmet of Migration Watch said: “This is no surprise. The adverse effects on the NHS and GP surgeries of very high immigration of the last 25 years, and especially in the past five to six years, has been dire. We should be training many more of our own young people, and not stealing medics from poor countries that need them even more than we do.”

A Government spokesperson said: “The NHS benefits hugely from its international staff. However, we have become over-reliant on recruiting from countries which desperately need their own medics. This governments focus is instead on training up our home grown talent.

“More widely, net migration is now at its lowest level in five years, down by more than two-thirds under this government. And we will go further to cut numbers, with the Home Secretary having outlined fundamental reforms to fix our broken immigration system, ensuring people who come here contribute and give more than they take.”