Nigel Farage caused controversy at the televised leaders’ debate by attacking the high cost of giving anti-retroviral drugs to sufferers not born in Britain . Half of voters agree with Ukip that immigrants should not immediately receive free HIV treatment, a poll suggests. Nigel Farage caused controversy at the televised leaders’ debate last week by attacking the high cost of giving anti-retroviral drugs to sufferers not born in Britain. Ed Miliband said his comments were ‘disgusting’, Nick Clegg said they were ‘politics of the lowest form’ and chancellor George Osborne, when asked, said he was ‘not going to dignify that with a response.’ The Ukip leader insisted afterwards that he had the ‘overwhelming support’ of the British public for saying that foreign nationals with HIV – whom he said accounted for 60 per cent of the 7,000 cases a year – ‘can come into Britain from anywhere in the world and get diagnosed with HIV and get the retroviral drugs that cost up to £25,000 per patient’. He added: ‘I know there are some horrible things happening in many parts of the world, but what we need to do is put the National Health Service there for British people and families who in many cases have paid into the system for decades.’ A YouGov poll of 1,906 adults found that 50 per cent would support ‘people coming to live in the UK being banned from receiving treatment on the NHS for a period of five years’. Another 34 per cent opposed such a ban. A second question saw voters asked which statement best reflected their view. In this, 52 per cent thought Mr Farage was ‘right to raise this issue - immigrants with serious conditions like HIV are costing the health service a large amount of money’. This compared with 37 per cent who picked: ‘Nigel Farage was just scaremongering - compared to the total cost of the NHS this is a drop in the ocean’, and 11 per cent did not know. Interestingly, the respondents did not appear to particularly favour Ukip, saying on average that Mr Farage was only the fourth best-performing leader last Thursday, with Nicola Sturgeon in the lead, followed by David Cameron and Ed Miliband. It later emerged that Mr Farage’s figures were a bit out – there are 6,000 diagnoses of HIV every year according to Public Health England. Diane James, an MEP and the party’s justice and home affairs spokesman, insisted yesterday that Ukip would go on if Farage lost . Just over half (54 per cent) are foreign born, but most of them are thought to have been infected whilst living in the UK. The cost of anti-retroviral drugs per year gas been put at up to £16,000 depending on the stage of infection. The Ukip leader, speaking on the campaign trail yesterday defended his remarks saying he wanted people to ‘think and understand why their grandmother who is 85 finds it very difficult to get drugs for breast cancer but anybody can get on a plane from anywhere in the world, be HIV tested in London and receive antiretroviral drugs. Something, it seems to me, isn’t right here.’ Any foreign national - even a failed asylum seeker – who is diagnosed, has been entitled to free treatment since 2012 due to what experts say are the risks of allowing the virus to spread. A Ukip spokesman said: ‘This poll finding shows yet again the disconnect that exists between the Westminster bubble and much of the population. 'Nigel Farage is the one leader who has the political courage to raise difficult issues and clearly millions of voters agree with that stance.’ It later emerged that Mr Farage’s figures were a bit out – there are 6,000 diagnoses of HIV every year according to Public Health England . Mr Farage took a blow yesterday as another poll showed he would fail to secure a Parliamentary seat. He has vowed to stand down as leader if he fails to become the MP for Thanet South, which he is fighting hard to win at the General Election. A private ComRes poll paid for by a Ukip donor put the Conservatives on course to retain the seat by a small margin. But Diane James, an MEP and the party’s justice and home affairs spokesman, insisted yesterday that Ukip would go on if he lost, and that future leaders of the Eurosceptic party were waiting to ‘put their hats in the ring’. Patrick O’Flynn, Ukip’s economics spokesman, said in an interview on Sky News yesterday that Ukip were not seeking to withdraw treatment from HIV positive foreign nationals already receiving drugs from the NHS.
Nigel Farage caused controversy at the televised leaders' debate last week.
He attacked high cost of giving anti-retroviral drugs to non-British sufferers.
Ukip leader insisted he had 'overwhelming support' of public for comment.
Claimed 60% of 7,000 cases a year 'come into UK from anywhere in world'