Reform candidate wants to destroy the NHS

Increasingly, Reform UK’s lineup for the local elections looks like something out of the Monster Mash. The latest horrorshow we’re drawing your attention to is James Bembridge. Much like Nigel Farage, Bembridge has stated a desire to get rid of the publicly run NHS.

You know – that thing we all rely on to live:

Oh, sorry, you thought that Reform UK were running ‘salt of the earth’ candidates?

No, no – they said they’re running ‘salt the earth’ candidates.

Good luck if the earth they’re salting is the same that you happen to live on.

Reform on the NHS: “hate is too weak a word”

James Bembridge is the deputy editor of Country Squire magazine. We’re sure Reform’s working class voters know this already, because they’re all avid readers.

If you’re wondering how his work reads, here’s a sample:

‘Just write,’ my editor said.

What a load of Woman’s-Weekly-self-helping bollocks.

Did Monet just paint? Did Whitney Houston just sing? Did Jemma Jameson just wiggle that tremendous arse of hers? I think not. That arse made men pawns to her star, just as my writing will make –

‘You’re disgusting!’ some small, hen-faced woman says, and I realise I’m thinking aloud again – in Bloomsbury Street of all places.

Dreadful, isn’t it?

The sort of migraine-inducing stuff that makes you glad we have a free-to-use medical service.

It was Reform Party UK Exposed who drew attention to Bembridge’s opinions on the NHS. They’ve also exposed Bembridge for defending Tommy Robinson (a far-right activist that Reform generally distance themselves from):

Heres a video of Reform UK’s candidate in Soho, Westminster, James Bembridge (@TheBembridge) glibly defending Tommy Robinson against racism allegations.

He was a member of the BNP and EDL, and in the video Bembridge states he’s looked everywhere and not found any racism by him… pic.twitter.com/qE4Q59CMB1

— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) April 13, 2026

Tommy Robinson and David Starkey loving James Bembridge no less, the Reform UK candidate for West End, Westminster.

Wonder if he agrees with Starkey’s statement that slavery was not genocide because of the survival of "so many damn blacks". https://t.co/LgG3WMXd0K

— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) April 11, 2026

You’ll note Bembridge looks like a Doctor Who-style regeneration of the guy from the Crystal Maze (that or a British One-Punch Man). Unlike everything else in this piece, that isn’t a criticism:

‘For the past six years, I’ve been a louche bohemian writer writing about Soho. I think I have authority on this matter.’ I am a Sohoite standing for @reformparty_uk for the West End. @danwootton @Nigel_Farage pic.twitter.com/YpDXzKKX8q

— James Bembridge (@TheBembridge) April 9, 2026

Getting back to the criticism, this guy is properly evil:

Imagine thinking this is funny, two days before Christmas, then posting it.@TheBembridge is a Reform UK candidate in Westminster. pic.twitter.com/7HK5ds5Ile

— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) April 14, 2026

Other problematic Reform candidates include the following:

Public health

Unlike Bembridge, most people in the UK don’t want a private insurance system.

Using the US as an example, there are two key reasons why we shouldn’t go anywhere near an insurance-based system.

The first issue is one that most people are aware of. When you have an insurance based system of health, your citizens end up trapped beneath mountains of debt. As Health System Tracker note:

analysis shows that 20 million people (nearly 1 in 12 adults) owe medical debt. The SIPP survey suggests people in the United States owe at least $220 billion in medical debt. Approximately 14 million people (6% of adults) in the U.S. owe over $1,000 in medical debt and about 3 million people (1% of adults) owe medical debt of more than $10,000. While medical debt occurs across demographic groups, people with disabilities or in worse health, lower-income people, and uninsured people are more likely to have medical debt.

The second and most shocking issue is the US pays more per head for their healthcare.

That’s right; we’re not saying the US pays more overall; we’re saying more per head.

Despite US citizens having to arrange their own health insurance, the government still – somehow – ends up paying more to prop up their system than we do on a person-to-person basis.

The U.S. spends far more on healthcare than other rich countries. $15,000 per person (almost double), 18% of GDP (nearly twice as high), and healthcare inflation is 7% (roughly double others).

Yet outcomes are worse. Life expectancy is lower, infant & maternal mortality higher,…

— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) April 9, 2026

Sure, we Americans may not have universal healthcare and fine, maybe we also have some of the worst healthcare in the developed world, but at least we get to pay thousands of dollars every month in health insurance for basically nothing and still go broke if we get sick

— Conspiratorial Templates (@mynamehear) April 13, 2026

The sick party

Saying you want to swap the NHS for a Yank-style system is like saying you want to swap your working car for a wheelless junker.

We’ll be the first to admit the NHS is in a sorry state of affairs following years of ideologically-driven austerity. The solution to that problem isn’t to replace it with the worst system imaginable, though; it’s to properly fund the NHS.

The country squires don’t worry about losing the NHS because they know they won’t be the ones to suffer.

Featured image via Reform UK