Government claims that non-residents are costing the NHS as much as £2 billion a year were rubbished yesterday by doctors and opposition leaders.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt seized on the headline-grabbing report, released on the same day as the Con-Dem Immigration Bill had its first reading in Parliament, to claim that the NHS could legally be able to claw back at least £500 million of that amount from short-term migrants and foreign visitors who use the service.

The report estimates that so-called "health tourists" - people who travel to Britain specifically to use its health service - could cost as little as £10m.