UKIP leader Nigel Farage yesterday shrugged off the controversy he caused during the leaders' debate when he said HIV positive migrants to the UK were a drain on the health service and whiled away some time drinking a pint of British Bulldog at an Easter beer festival.

The Ukip leader drank a couple of Kent ales as he relaxed after canvassing voters in Margate.

Farage also returned yesterday to old ground he'd trod at the the leaders debate when he called for a cut in the amount of money "flowing over Hadrian's wall" into Scotland as a result of the Barnett formula.

Mocking the success of SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon in the debate, Farage said: "Money grows on trees, it's wonderful. Everything can be free, it's great.

"The English keep shovelling money over Hadrian's Wall and she can promise everything."

He added: "What the SNP are offering the Scottish people in the medium-to-long term is wholly unrealistic and completely unaffordable."

Asked why he made the HIV comment, he said: "I wanted to make people think and understand why their grandmother who is 85 finds it very difficult to get drugs for breast cancer but anybody can get on a plane from anywhere in the world, be HIV tested in London and receive anti-retroviral drugs. Something, it seems to me, isn't right here."

Farage faced widespread condemnation for his comments in the debate.