Is Douglas Carswell avoiding the HIV question — or should he be given a break?

Does Douglas Carswell agree with Nigel Farage’s controversial comments on treating foreigners with HIV? When I asked the Ukip leader, Farage responded ‘Yeah of course, he thinks we should have a national health service not an international health service.’ The question was put to Carswell directly on Question Time last night, when Piers Morgan took him to task if he was ‘ashamed’ at the comments. Carswell responded:

‘I think it’s entirely legitimate and right that we should expect that our National Health Service is a national health service and not an international health service. Now if someone was to fly into this country with no prior connection here at all and to fly in specifically to access treatment to which they weren’t entitled, I think most people would expect that is wrong.

When he was pushed on those exact remarks, Carswell was booed for not answering the question and pointed the finger in Farage’s direction.

‘You need to talk to Nigel about that —I think it’s entirely legitimate to make the point that our national health service is not an international health service but I think also important to point out that there has been enormous progress in fighting this terrible disease and I think that is something we should celebrate.