Nigel Farage tonight suggested Britons should be charged up front for GP appointments as he backed a shake-up of the NHS.
The Reform UK leader was grilled about his support for the country adopting a French-style healthcare system in a BBC Panorama interview with Nick Robinson.
Mr Farage said it ‘makes sense’ for patients to be charged to see a doctor, before claiming the money back.
He suggested this would help combat the ‘problem’ of GPs having some patients not turn up to surgeries.
The Reform leader was grilled over his views on the NHS, immigration, Brexit and the future of British politics during the half-hour interview.
He admitted his shock comeback to frontline politics ahead of the general election might lead to a Tory wipeout on 4 July, and help give Labour‘s Sir Keir Starmer a massive majority in the House of Commons.
Mr Farage also claimed the Conservatives had ‘failed to deliver’ Brexit since the 2016 EU referendum.
Nigel Farage tonight suggested Britons should be charged for GP appointments as he backed a shake-up of the NHS
The Reform UK leader was grilled about his support for the country adopting a French-style healthcare system in a BBC Panorama interview with Nick Robinson
Mr Farage admitted his shock comeback to frontline politics ahead of the general election might lead to a Tory wipeout on 4 July
During the general election campaign, the Reform leader has warned the NHS ‘isn’t working’ and suggested Britain copy France’s health system.
Robinson quizzed Mr Farage about whether he would support Brits being charged the equivalent of 25 euros to go and see a family doctor – as happens across the Channel.
He replied: ‘No, no, if you turn up, you don’t pay that charge. If you don’t turn up, you forfeit it. That’s how the French do it.’
Pressed on whether he was suggesting Brits should have to pay for GP appointments, Mr Farage added: ‘No, because you get it back. It’s refunded.’
Challenged again on whether he wanted the NHS to adopt a French-style system where Brits are charged to see a family doctor, before claiming the money back, the Reform leader added: ‘Well, it costs you nothing to go to the doctor right, because you get it back.
‘And the reason they do that, and by the way, British GP’s have this problem, is people book appointments and don’t turn up. So, actually, thinking about it, it makes sense.’
Mr Farage’s shock return to frontline politics has turbocharged Reform’s election campaign, with the insurgent party drawing level with – or even moving ahead of – the Tories in some opinion polls.
Robinson quizzed Mr Farage on whether he was happy that Reform might help Labour win a huge Commons majority by splitting the right-wing vote on 4 July.
He replied: ‘Even if I had not thrown myself into this campaign, the Conservatives were doomed anyway.
‘A very large chunk of their 2019 vote feel literally betrayed by the (Tory) party and what I’m saying is this, Starmer’s going to win, and we all know that now, it’s just a matter of, you know, by what margin.
‘Who is going to be the voice of opposition to a Labour government with a big majority? A split divided Conservative Party or me?’
Asked if he was plotting a takeover of the British political right, Mr Farage said: ‘Well, there isn’t a right of British politics, it’s gone, disappeared.
‘I mean we’ve had 14 years of Conservative government, they may as well change their name to the SDP.
‘It’s been high tax, big state, more control of our lives, damaging period for the five and a half million men and women running small businesses, they’ve not even been vaguely Conservative, low tax, free market.
‘And on the big one, and the big one is immigration.
‘You know when you think that since the Conservatives came to power our population has risen by six million
‘And you wonder why you can’t get a GP appointment, you wonder why the roads are clogged, you wonder why you can’t get a house.’
Mr Farage denied that Britain’s exit from the EU had been a ‘failure’, but said the Tories ‘failed to deliver’ Brexit.
He added: ‘The Conservative Party never believed in Brexit, they never believed in it, they picked it up as a political opportunity, and they failed to deliver.
‘Deregulation and immigration were the gains that we could have had, we haven’t had them because of the Conservative Party.’