Nigel Farage has called for the mass sacking from the National Health Service of doctors and nurses who do not have a good command of the English language. The Ukip leader suggested it was “scandalous” that the health service was recruiting from abroad due to a lack of UK-trained staff and said it was natural that people in this country wanted to live alongside those who speak the same language. Asked if he wanted to “winnow out” those who could not speak English, he told Sky News’ Murnaghan show: “Of course. Don’t we want to live in a country where we speak the same language? “And isn’t it scandalous, isn’t it scandalous, that we’re not training enough nurses and doctors in our own country? “And I don’t know about you, if you’ve ever been to a GP that didn’t speak very good English, it’s something people out there are talking about. “If people don’t speak English and they’re dealing with English-speaking patients, surely they shouldn’t be employed in the first place.” It is unclear how many NHS workers struggle to speak English to a high standard, but more than one in 10 of the 1.3 million staff employed by the NHS was born outside the UK. Mr Farage also defended his party’s pledge to require foreigners to take out insurance to cover their potential health costs before they enter the UK, saying: “This is what the whole of the world does, and yet we have let the National Health Service to become the International Health Service and that doesn’t make sense." Meanwhile, Mr Farage held open the option of entering into a coalition government with the Conservatives after the election, but ruled out governing alongside either Labour or the SNP. He said: “I don’t see Ukip being joined together with Labour and the SNP at all, I really don’t. “In fact, I regard it, even if we were in that position, as unlikely that Ukip would want to be in coalition with anybody. But what you can do is give support to minority governments in return for what you want. “David Cameron doesn’t like Ukip and he doesn’t like me and he’s been incredibly rude about us over a very long period of time – not just about us personally, but about our policies, saying how appalling they are. And yet now in interviews, he tries to sound a little bit like us. “Don’t forget just two and a bit years ago, Cameron was implacably opposed to having a referendum. Ukip started to do well in one or two by-elections, he changed his tune. “We would not even be discussing a European referendum if Ukip hadn’t done well; if you really want a referendum, make sure there are enough Ukip MPs in Westminster to hold the balance of power.” Source
