LIAM FOX “should be ashamed” of having described European workers as “one of Britain’s main cards” in negotiations with the EU, the leader of the Royal College of Midwives said yesterday.

The International Trade Secretary suggested at the Tory party conference earlier this month that the fate of EU nationals living in Britain would play a part in the trade-offs in the run-up to Britain’s withdrawal from the bloc.

But opening the RCM conference yesterday, chief executive Cathy Warwick said the “well over 1,000 NHS midwives” from other EU countries were “the very people our maternity services need” to keep going.