Nigel Farage has called for access to the NHS to be limited to British citizens, despite more than one in 10 health staff coming from overseas.

The Ukip leader claimed 'the National Health Service is here for British citizens' as he boasted £3billion could be spent on healthcare if Britain left the European Union.

He also argued the 5million foreign citizens living in the UK should be banned from taking part in any referendum on severing ties with Brussels.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage claimed 'the National Health Service is here for British citizens', raising the prospect of people like his German wife Kirsten being excluded

It raises the prospect of his German wife Kirsten being denied the vote and barred from using the NHS.

Mr Farage, who has advocated an insurance-funded model for the NHS in the past, was again forced to insist Ukip is now committed to a health service that was free at the point of delivery.

But he said the service was struggling because of the 'massive increase' in the country's population.

He called for measures to crack down on health tourism and said people studying for medical subjects should be exempt from tuition fees to reduce the NHS's reliance on migrant workers.

Mr Farage sparked a storm of controversy last October when he suggested migrants with HIV should not be allowed to enter Britain.

He said he wanted to control the ‘quality’ of immigration into Britain and suggested this should include the medical condition of incomers.

But he went much further, and suggested only British citizens should be allowed to use the NHS, despite foreign nationals paying tax in the UK and thousands working in the health service themselves.

Figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), show that 12 per cent of people working in the NHS and community health services are not British.

Among qualified clinical staff the figure is 14 per cent, and for doctors it is 26 per cent.

The British Medical Association has warned that ) to observe that without non-British staff, 'many NHS services would struggle to provide effective care to their patients'.

But Mr Farage suggested they should be banned from using the health service themselves.

He told BBC One's Andrew Marr show: 'I very much take the view that it is a National Health Service, and to open ourselves up - whether it's to HIV treatment, whether it's to maternity services or whatever it is - to the rest of the world, doesn't make sense.

The National Health Service is here for British citizens Ukip leader Nigel Farage

'It is costing us at least £2 billion a year, the National Health Service is here for British citizens.

He added: 'We want the NHS to be better run, we want it to be more efficient. We think it's ludicrous that middle management has grown by 48 per cent, we think the fact that health tourism is costing £2billion a year is wrong and the fact that one in five new nurses being taken on have to come from abroad says to us 'let's make sure there are no tuition fees for people who are taking medical degrees'.

'We want a National Health Service that is free at the point of delivery and funded through taxation.

'But the one thing nobody dares say is the reason we have an NHS crisis right now is because of a massive increase in the population in this country.'

Figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), show that 12 per cent of people working in the NHS and community health services are not British

He announced Ukip would promise an extra £3 billion a year for the NHS 'funded out of the fact that we will not be paying daily membership fees as members of the European Union'.

However, the Tory promise of an in-out referendum before the end of 2017 means it could be several years before Britain could leave the EU.

Ukip has also been damaged by comments made by party secretary Matthew Richardson that the NHS is a 'waste of money'.

Footage emerged from 2010 of Mr Richardson attacking the health service at events in the US.

Speaking at the Young Americans Foundation conference in Washington he said: 'When I was younger a trillion was an astronomic number. Now when I look at our national deficits, and your national deficits, actually it is an economic number.

'A number I couldn't possible imagine when I was younger is now the amount of money that is owed by my country, and soon more than that by your country, to other countries, paying for wasteful socialist programmes. And of course at the heart of this, the Reichstag bunker of socialism is the National Health Service.'

Mr Farage, pictured, has faced a string of dire headlines, including the defection of an MEP to the Tories and the party secretary branding the NHS a 'waste of money'

'ONLY BRITS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO VOTE ON LEAVING THE EU' David Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain’s membership, clawing powers back from Brussels and clamping down on welfare abuse, before staging an in-out vote by 2017. Ukip leader Nigel Farage said he would be willing to back a Tory government after the election, but wanted the referendum, held soon with only Briton’s allowed to take part. He said: ‘I would say I want a referendum, I want it now. I want a referendum with good rules – namely the spending limits for both sides are the same. 'And I want a guarantee that in this referendum the only people that can vote are British citizens because at the moment you know there are 4 million or so EU citizens living in Britain who I do not think should be allowed to vote in that referendum.’ Advertisement

At the Conservative Political Action Conference in the same year he said: 'This socialist government wastes money like you can't imagine. They have started doing every wasteful scheme under the sun ... The biggest waste of money of course in the United Kingdom is the NHS, the National Health Service.'

Mr Farage said Mr Richardson 'made those comments as a Conservative and he was very critical of hundreds of millions of pounds being wasted through middle management'.

He went on to complain about Ukip policies come under attack from rivals.

'Once again we have a General Election campaign being fought on American terms where it's all negativity.

'It's artillery shells being lobbed between Labour and Conservatives and now of course towards Ukip.'

Labour frontbencher Jon Trickett said: 'Either Nigel Farage supports this or Mr Richardson cannot stay in post. Nigel Farage cannot simultaneously defend these comments and claim that his party stands for the NHS free at the point of use.

'The man chosen by Nigel Farage to control UKIP's image has compared the NHS to Hitler's Nazi bunker. This is UKIP's real agenda on the NHS.

'Today Labour is shining a light on Nigel Farage and his party's true views on the future of the NHS. They claim to defend the service we cherish, but they want to dismantle its foundations.