Labour will step up its attacks on Nigel Farage’s views on the NHS as it tries to halt Reform UK’s surge in the polls, HuffPost UK can reveal.
Farage has repeatedly floated the idea of introducing a French-style insurance model for the health service.
Speaking on LBC on Sunday, he said that he was “open to anything” when it comes to how the NHS is funded.
Those comments were quickly clipped up and posted on social media by Labour, who said it meant that “patients would have to pay for healthcare with Reform”.
Health secretary Wes Streeting also waded in, saying: “With Reform, our NHS would be reduced to a poor service for poor people, with working people forced to pay to go private.
“Labour will rebuild our NHS so that it is there for everyone who needs it and, whenever you’re ill, you never have to worry about the bill.”
He added: “Every single voter considering Reform needs to ask themselves if they could afford to pay for health insurance like patients have to elsewhere?
“There are elections in just three months time. Voters deserve straight talking from Reform about their plans to move to health insurance.”
Farage hit back on X, accusing Streeting of “lying about our plans for the NHS”.
“Let me be clear, the NHS will always be free at the point of delivery under a Reform government,” he said.
Nevertheless, HuffPost UK has learned that Labour will highlight Farage’s NHS comments as a key plank of its campaign for the local elections in May.
A party source said: “The public cares deeply about the NHS, and the principle of it being free at the point of use is non-negotiable for almost everyone. It represents British values.
“That’s why it’s important that we highlight the danger of Nigel Farage’s consistent position on moving to a fee-paying model.
“It would see patients paying hundreds, even thousands, for hip replacements, cataract surgery, and even routine treatment.
“Kemi Badenoch refuses to explicitly state that the Tories won’t get in bed with Farage’s party. This leaves big questions unanswered in the minds of voters. We intend to keep asking those questions.”
Former Labour frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth, now chief executive of the Labour Together think-tank, said: “Nigel Farage has made it crystal clear he wants to introducing charging for healthcare. Voters will be repulsed by his plans for US style health insurance.
“Our research at Labour Together reveals this to be his Achilles heal and Labour is right to go after him on it.”
The row comes as an opinion poll put Reform UK ahead of both Labour and the Tories for the first time.
The survey, by pollsters Find Out Now, put the right-wing party on 26%, with the Conservatives on 23% and Labour on 22%.
Reform UK have been consistently polling in the mid-20s for months, well up on the 14% they received at last year’s general election.