NIGEL FARAGE has said his comments about “HIV tourists” are perfectly compatible with a religious outlook, claiming that it is “a sensible Christian thing to look after your family and your own community first”.

The Ukip leader spoke out on the topic of Christianity after his criticism of foreignborn HIV patients receiving treatment under the NHS, made during last week’s party leaders’ election debate, was widely condemned as intolerant, xenophobic and lacking in human charity. He claimed that 60 per cent of the 7,000 HIV annual diagnoses in the UK involved “health tourists” who travel to Britain to receive retroviral drug treatment at a cost of up to £25,000 a year.

Leanne Wood, the Plaid Cymru leader, accused Mr Farage of “dangerous scaremongering”. She was applauded by the studio audience after telling him during the debate: “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

But asked yesterday whether his views were compatible with a Christian outlook, Mr Farage said: “What good Christian would say to an 85year-old woman, ‘You can’t have breast cancer treatment because we can’t afford it’, whilst at the same time shovelling a billion pounds on foreign aid, allowing people from all over the world to fly into Britain as health tourists, get an HIV test and drugs of over £20,000 a year?”

Speaking to Sky News he added: “It is a sensible Christian thing to look after your family and your own community first.”

Mr Farage said that he regarded himself as a Christian, despite attending church only a “few times a year”, and insisted Britain should maintain its cultural position as a “Judeo-Christian” country.

Asked what it meant to say that the UK was a Christian country, he said: “Well that is perfectly clear. We have a Judeo-Christian culture and we even have a Judeo-Christian constitution.”

He added: “That doesn’t mean we are not the most tolerant country in Europe in terms of all cultures and other religions. We always have been, but we mustn’t forget who we are.”

During a campaign visit to a beer festival, he said: “I think there are millions like that, millions brought up to be Christian, who perhaps in adult life put it rather at the back of their minds.” ÞA Ukip commissioned poll which showed Mr Farage falling a point behind his Tory opponent in the Kent seat of South Thanet, which he is contesting, was allegedly buried by the party this week, according to the Mail on Sunday. A party spokesman told the paper it was a “rogue poll” and the results “unreliable”.