Nigel Farage stands by claim that people with HIV should be banned from UK
Leader of The Brexit Party Nigel Farage appears on The Andrew Marr Show on May 11, 2019 in London, England. (Jeff Overs/BBC via Getty)
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has stood by his claim that people living with HIV should not be able to enter the UK.
In an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday (May 12), Farage was asked whether he stood by his 2014 claim that HIV-positive people should be banned from the UK.
When asked which kinds of people should be allowed to enter the UK in 2014, then-UKIP leader Nigel Farage had said: “People who do not have HIV, to be frank. That’s a good start.”
Ahead of the 2015 general election, Farage repeated the statement, claiming the UK is “incapable” of treating people with HIV because of immigration.
Nigel Farage stands by HIV comments
Challenging the Brexit Party leader on his past views on Sunday, Andrew Marr asked: “Do you still feel that people with HIV shouldn’t be allowed into this country?”
Farage responded: “Do I think the National Health Service is there for British people? Yes, I absolutely do.”
The Brexit Party leader, who has not released a manifesto ahead of the European Elections was also pressed over his past statements that the UK should move to an insurance-based healthcare system and allow people to own handguns.
Leader of The Brexit Party Nigel Farage appears on The Andrew Marr Show on May 11, 2019 in London, England. (Jeff Overs/BBC via Getty)
Farage vented at the interviewer when repeated pressed over his public record.
He said: “This is absolutely ludicrous. I’ve never in my life seen a more ridiculous interview than this.
“You are not prepared to talk about what is going on in this country today.
“You’re in denial, the BBC is in denial, the Tory and Labour parties are in denial, and you’re all in for a bigger surprise than you can even imagine.”
Brexit Party has anti-LGBT candidates
The Brexit Party is tipped to make huge gains in the May 23 European elections, but its candidates have come under fire for their views on LGBT+ issues.
Brexit Party candidate Alka Sehgal Cuthbert is a critic of LGBT+ inclusive education programmes.
In a 2017 column for right-wing website Spiked, Cuthbert, a part-time English teacher and educational consultant, slammed education watchdog Ofsted for “forcing a religious school to include homosexuality in the curriculum.”
Cuthbert also criticised the LGBT+ inclusive No Outsiders programme run at schools in Birmingham, writing: “Educators are behaving like indoctrinators, and pushing an anti-Enlightenment, particularist line.
“Rather than promoting inclusivity, this fetishisation of diversity actually reifies personal difference.
“Teaching kids to be careful about protected characteristics or supposedly vulnerable social groups is anti-universal – it encourages kids to see their peers as different to them on the basis of gender, race or sexuality.”
