Reform accused of preventing like ‘rats in sack’ over charging for the NHS
Welsh leader Dan Thomas went against Nigel Farage by ruling out changing the NHS to an insurance-based healthcare system, despite the Reform UK leader failing to do so just one week earlier
Nigel Farage has refused to rule out an insurance-based model for the NHS(Image: PA)
Reform has been accused of “fighting like rats in a sack” after a row emerged over charging Brits for healthcare.
Welsh leader Dan Thomas went against Nigel Farage by ruling out changing the NHS to an insurance-based healthcare system, despite the Reform UK leader failing to do so just one week earlier.
Mr Farage had told journalists “that would be a national decision ahead of a general election“. He has previously flirted with the idea – but has issued conflicting messages, including the NHS remaining free at the point of use. Mr Thomas has now promised no privatisation.
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Asked if he disagreed with Farage’s remarks on an insurance model, Mr Thomas replied: “Look, Nigel’s also said that devolved issues are down to the Welsh party, and I wouldn’t consider any kind of insurance-based or private-based system for the Welsh NHS.”
Responding, Stephen Kinnock MP, Health Minister said: “Reform are now fighting like rats in a sack over whether or not to charge you for healthcare. Nigel Farage has a long history of pushing for an insurance-based system of healthcare – and we know when his right-hand men fall out of line, he’s more than willing to throw them under the bus to get his own way.
“Destroying our NHS has become a life’s ambition for Farage – there’s no reason to believe he’ll stop now. Whether it be in England or in Nye Bevan’s Wales, we can’t afford to let Reform get within an inch of our NHS. Labour is fixing our NHS and will always ensure it remains free at the point of use.”
Mr Farage had been asked about Reform’s NHS promises during Reform’s Welsh manifesto launch last week, and whether he would consider a French style insurance healthcare system. He said: “That would be a national decision ahead of a general election. All I will say on the national side of it, is there are one or two health trusts in England where they’ve managed, without huge increases in budgets, to massively increase delivery, and our chairman, David Bull, is, of course, a former GP, and we’re looking at best practice.
“As I’ve said before, on the big UK picture of health, I’m prepared to consider any alternative to the failure we’ve got now, and the failure is, we’ve doubled expenditure, and there are no more beds in the NHS over the course of the last 10 years. It’s not working.”
Reform said in its 2024 general election manifesto that NHS services “will always be free at the point of use,” though not for foreign citizens. Mr Farage has repeatedly called for a new healthcare system where “If you can afford it, you pay; if you can’t, you don’t”.
