Reform's leader in Wales said he wouldn't consider changing the NHS to an insurance-based system, despite Nigel Farage consistently saying he would
Reform is in chaos over its NHS policy, after the Welsh Reform leader went against Nigel Farage’s plans to fund the NHS via an insurance-based system.
Reform’s leader in Wales, Dan Thomas, told Politico that he would not consider “any kind of insurance-based system or privatisation” of the NHS.
However, Farage, who has consistently said he would consider switching to funding the NHS through private health insurance rather than taxes, said at Reform’s Wales manifesto launch on 5 March that “That would be a national decision ahead of a general election”.
However, Thomas said Farage had suggested that decisions on “devolved” issues such as the NHS would be decided by Reform in Wales.
Reform has said that it would keep the NHS free “at the point of use”. However, Farage has previously said some British families could be forced to pay health insurance to use the NHS if he was prime minister.
At a rally in Swindon last night, chair of Reform David Bull said he wrote Reform’s health policy, and that it is “a blatant lie” that Reform will privatise the NHS. He added that the NHS will remain “free at the point of need” under a Reform government.
Responding to internal clashes in Reform over NHS policy, health secretary Wes Streeting told the Mirror: “Farage and his top team are hell bent on destroying our health service as we know it – weak attempts to hide their plan just don’t wash.
“Nigel’s Health Service will strip away part of the very fabric of Britain by ushering in a system of care only for those who can afford the bill.”
Health Minister Stephen Kinnock MP said the spat showed Reform were “fighting like rats”, and that destroying the NHS was a lifelong “ambition” for the Reform leader.
He added: “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.”
UNISON assistant general secretary Jon Richards said: “Nigel Farage is on record saying he’d look at a US-style, insurance-based system for healthcare, but it’s no surprise even his cronies shy away from such a toxic policy.
“It’s almost a given there’s dissent and confusion in the ranks of Reform given Farage and his band of Tory chancers are tying themselves in knots over Iran.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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