UKIP councillor accuses NHS of ‘wasting’ money on LGBT services
An NHS logo (Getty)
A UKIP councillor has blamed the NHS for being in a crisis because “too much” funding is given to LGBT services, leaving “other people feeling put out”.
Nigel Pearson, a councillor for Chard North in Somerset, made the sweeping statement in a leaflet that was distributed prior to local elections.
As well as pinning the blame of the NHS crisis on LGBT services, the leaflet said that the national shortage of NHS doctors was due to “too many women being hired” in an act of “positive discrimination”.
It reads: “Women take career breaks to have a family and tend to only work part time when they return to the surgery. How many female doctors are there in your surgery working 2 or 3 days a week?”
Pearson told Metro that he believes LGBT people and others will stand by the comments made in the leaflet.
“I’m sure there are a number of LGBT people out there who are passionate about this, but there are other people who will feel put out and will want to know what this money was used for.”
He added that he believed the NHS should “set a quota for female doctors, so we don’t train so many female doctors and instead train more men”.
The leaflet also blames the Conservative Party for spending money on “Syrian refugee children and Syrian families” rather than on the health service.
Pearson insisted that the party supported him in his comments, but a spokesman for UKIP said that the party did not.
“It is clear that this individual is not speaking for UKIP as a whole but for themselves. Fortunately this rather eccentric view is not held as a party policy.”
