ICYMI, on Question Time Ukip's Paul Nuttall tried to blame the NHS crisis on immigrants

The deputy leader of Ukip faced boos on the BBC's Question Time on Thursday night when he blamed problems in the NHS on "too many people in the country".

Paul Nuttall was asked by writer and campaigner Paris Lees to clarify his position on privatisation of the NHS, a policy he has previously backed.

He responded with:

The bigger problem with the NHS is that we’re allowing 300,000 people into this country, every single year. You can’t plan for an NHS, when there’s too many people in the country, it’s as simple as that.

This was shown to be an unpopular assessment of the root cause of the NHS funding crisis.

As Lees interjected:

Shame on you. We would not have an NHS if it weren't for those doctors coming in from different countries.

Reports by the King’s Fund have found that the average use of health services by immigrants and visitors appears to be lower than that of people born in the United Kingdom, and 20 per cent of the NHS workforce (including 30 per cent of doctors) are non-British.

In the 2011 census, the foreign born population of the UK was found to be 11.9 per cent.

In addition, numerous studies have found that migrants are net contributors to the UK in terms of taxation and benefits.

So essentially, Paul Nuttall has tried to blame the NHS crisis on the people who use it the least and contribute to it the most.

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