UK should ‘re-examine’ NHS funding model, says Farage ahead of Reform rally
Reform UK was launching its local election campaign in Birmingham on Friday.
Nigel Farage has denied wanting to make people pay to visit the doctor, but said Britain should “re-examine” how it funds the NHS.
In an interview on the BBC’s Today programme, the Reform UK leader insisted he supported healthcare remaining free at the point of use.
But he added: “Everyone knows we are not getting bang for buck, everyone knows we are not getting value, let’s re-examine the whole funding model and find a way that’s more efficient.”
With local elections and a crucial by-election test in Runcorn and Helsby looming, Labour has sought to go on the offensive against Mr Farage over his stance on NHS funding.
In a series of attack ads launched on Friday, the party has pointed to previous comments by the Reform leader advocating for a change, including one from 2012 in which he said: “I think we are going to have to move to an insurance-based system of health care.”
But speaking to the BBC, Mr Farage said people should have health insurance “only if they can afford it” and suggested that Health Secretary Wes Streeting had been “saying very similar things” about funding the NHS.
Mr Streeting said not everyone in the UK could afford to pay for their healthcare like “Mr Moneybags”, while a Labour source said the minister had always been clear that the model of funding did not need to change.
The source added: “Farage told The Telegraph in December, ‘if you can afford it, you should pay’, and he has called for an insurance-based system for years – that’s healthcare delivered on your ability to pay.”
During his interview, Mr Farage also sought to distance himself from Donald Trump’s approach to Ukraine, suggesting Russia was “getting far too much”, and said he would be open to allowing chlorine-washed chicken to be sold in the UK as part of a trade deal with the US.
He said: “I would allow consumers in America to buy our products and consumers here to buy their products, and provided we have the right labelling, that’s good.”
Mr Farage’s interview comes ahead of a Reform rally in Birmingham on Friday evening at which he will launch his party’s local election campaign.
The party has claimed it will be “the biggest ever launch rally in modern British political history”, with 10,000 tickets said to have been sold.
But while Reform’s polling numbers remain buoyant, the party has also suffered a split after now-Independent MP Rupert Lowe criticised Mr Farage’s leadership. He was subsequently suspended over allegations of bullying in his parliamentary and constituency offices – allegations Mr Lowe strongly denies.
Ahead of the rally, Mr Farage told the BBC his party “might have had a problem with one MP” but would go into the local elections on May 1 “with a very upbeat agenda”.
He said: “We are going to point out to people the extent to which local government is broken in Britain and why it needs new people.”
Mr Streeting said: “(Mr Farage) can afford the premiums, he can afford the upfront costs, but not everyone in this country is like Mr Moneybags, and the great thing about the NHS is that it is publicly funded through fair taxation – public service free at the point of use.”
He added: “We don’t know whether it’s Nigel Farage or Kemi Badenoch that we’ll face at the next general election. It’s a bit like watching Alien Vs Predator, but neither of them are really committed to the NHS funding model.”
