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Wealthy Nigel Farage today called on people to abandon the NHS and use private health firms instead.

The UKIP leader said anyone who can afford private healthcare should pay for it.

Furious critics said it proved he supports a two-tier health system.

“If people can afford it, should people go private? Yes,” Mr Farage said.

Grahame Morris, a member of the Commons health select committee, said: “Nigel Farage has let the cat out of the bag.

“UKIP are proposing a break with the fundamental principles of the National Health Service.”

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Speaking later on Radio Five Live’s Pienaar’s Politics, Mr Farage said private healthcare offers a better service to those who can afford it.

“Those that can afford to do it should, and they will find health care to suit their needs,” he said.

“For most people actually getting a GP appointment now has become a massive problem with the population having risen the way that it has - and if people do opt out and go private, what that of course does is to relieve the pressure on the health service for everybody else.”

And he defended the way private health giants operate in the UK.

“Private medicine brings a lot of money into this country every year and is no bad thing,” he said.

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It is just the latest attack on the NHS from Mr Farage.

A video from 2012 showed him calling for the entire service to be scrapped and replaced with private health schemes.

“I think we are going to have to move to an insurance-based system of healthcare,” Mr Farage told a meeting.

“Frankly, I would feel more comfortable that my money would return value if I was able to do that through the market place of an insurance company - (rather) than just us trustingly giving £100billion a year to central government.”

His latest comments came as it emerged another senior UKIP politician wants to cut back elective surgery on the NHS.

Euro MP Bill Etheridge wrote: “Non-essential surgery, cosmetic work and fertility treatment should not be readily available.”

In his 2012 book, Black Country Revolutionary, the West Midlands MEP also called for university access to be limited to “elite” kids.

Mr Etheridge said only the “top 20%” of young people should be allowed into college.

His plan would bar hundreds of thousands of kids from going to university.

“The state education system needs a serious rethink,” he wrote.

“Universities should only be available to the top 20% of academic achievers.

“These elite, high achievers should have their education totally financed.”

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Labour MP John Spellar raged: “Parents will be stunned to hear that Mr Etheridge wants to stop their children going to university and getting on in life.

“His plan would mean thousands of local youngsters would be unable to go to universities and local universities like Wolverhampton or Birmingham City would find it very difficult to survive, putting thousands of jobs at risk.

“He wants to stop local youngsters going to university but would pay fees and living costs for the top 20% who would be from Britain’s private schools and elite state schools.

“And despite all his and UKIP’s claims that the NHS is safe in his hands, his plan for health cutbacks shows treatments like cataract surgery, hip replacement and IVF would be harder to get.”