![\"Reform](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1_01JH01GAZKM3QCF5V4Y39FRA9F.jpg\")
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (Image: Stefan Rousseau\/PA)<\/p>\nThe Reform UK leader was condemned for comments broadcast on the day of the local elections in England.<\/p>\n
09:58, 01 May 2025Updated 11:02, 01 May 2025<\/p>\n
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (Image: Stefan Rousseau\/PA)<\/p>\n
Nigel Farage<\/a> has been slammed after he said he no longer wanted the NHS to be funded from \u201cgeneral taxation\u201d.<\/p>\n The Reform UK<\/a> leader said the current model is “not working\u201d just as voters went to polls in England.<\/p>\n Labour Health secretary Wes Streeting<\/a> said: \u201cNigel Farage has said the quiet part out loud: he doesn\u2019t want a publicly funded NHS.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Farage<\/a>\u2019s plans to leave people paying over a grand for an A&E trip only one thing is clear – patients would be worse off under Reform.\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview with Sky News, Farage<\/a>, whose anti-immigration party is expected to make sweeping gains in the local and mayoral elections, was asked about how to fund the NHS.<\/p>\n He replied: \u201cI do not want it funded through general taxation. It doesn\u2019t work. It\u2019s not working. We\u2019re getting worse bang for the buck than any other country…”<\/p>\n \u201cI want it free at the point of delivery<\/a>, but it\u2019s how we get there.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: Rachel Reeves under investigation by sleaze watchdog over theatre ticket freebie worth \u00a3276<\/a>READ MORE: Stephen Flynn mocks Labour by urging Keir Starmer to campaign in Hamilton by-election<\/a><\/p>\n MP Farage<\/a> has a history of making criticisms about the way the NHS is funded.<\/p>\n He said over a decade ago: \u201cI think we\u2019re going to have to think about healthcare very, very differently. I think we are going to have to move to an insurance-based<\/a> system of healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n He said more recently: \u201cI was given almost pariah status for suggesting the NHS model<\/a> isn\u2019t working. I haven\u2019t shifted my position.<\/p>\n “We\u2019ve got to identify a system of funding for healthcare that is more effective than the one we have currently got, and at the same time carries those who can\u2019t afford to pay<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar<\/a> used an interview last year to attack Farage on the NHS.<\/p>\n He said: “The idea that somehow a political party that advocates breaking the principle of the NHS<\/a>, making it a private insurance scheme where people are having to mortgage their homes, take out huge loans in order to get the most basic of health treatment, is not a model that we want to see here in Scotland and I don\u2019t think would be accepted by the Scottish people.\u201d<\/p>\n