Second Lib Dem election candidate reveals he is HIV positive as he launches attack on Farage over his comments during TV debate 

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A second Liberal Democrat election candidate has revealed he is HIV positive as he launched a scathing attack on Nigel Farage for his comments on the condition during last week's TV debate.

Paul Childs, who is running in the Liverpool Riverside seat, said he burst into tears when he was diagnosed with the virus in 2011 following a routine test after starting a new relationship with a man.

The air steward said he was revealing he had HIV because he was infuriated by the Ukip leader's 'scaremongering' over the number of foreigners who have the condition.

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Paul Childs (pictured canvassing) is the second Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate to reveal he is HIV positive

Mr Childs said he decided to reveal he had HIV because he was infuriated by Nigel Farage's 'scaremongering' over foreigners who have the virus

The election candidate is the second Lib Dem to go public with their HIV positive status, after Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett, who is running for the party in Vauxhall, central London, explained that he got the virus intentionally as he embarked on a path of self 'annihilation'.

Mr Childs told BuzzFeed that he received a phone call from doctors after the HIV test saying they would like him to return for a second examination - something done after a positive result.

'I was never expecting it to happen. I remember being at work, sitting in a corridor and bursting into tears. I started shaking and getting really scared,' he said.

The second test also came back positive, confirming that Mr Childs, who is now 34, was infected.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage attacked the high cost of health service treatment for foreigners with HIV in the television debate

He said: 'I cried in front of the nurse – the staff were very supportive. I knew a little bit about what HIV meant because I’d done some work with a gay men’s health charity in Glasgow but I still had in my head that it was a terminal diagnosis. I asked the doctor how long I had to live.'

Mr Childs said he felt compelled to tell his story after Mr Farage said that thousands of people with HIV in the UK were not British.

During the televised debates, the Ukip leader said: ‘Here’s a fact and I’m sure that other people will be mortified that I dare to talk about it.

‘There are 7,000 diagnoses in this country every year for people who are HIV positive. It’s not a good place for any of them to be, I know, but 60 per cent of them are not British nationals.

‘You can come into Britain from anywhere in the world and get diagnosed with HIV and get the retroviral drugs that cost up to £25,000 a year per patient.

‘I know there are some horrible things happening in many parts of the world, but what we need to do is put the National Health Service there for British people and families who in many cases have paid into the system for decades.’ 

Mr Childs, who is hoping to beat Louise Ellman in the safe Labour seat, said Mr Farage was 'scaremongering'.

He said: 'You can’t keep blaming a country’s problems on immigrants. HIV is a drop in the ocean compared to what else the NHS is spending money on. 

'It’s just scaremongering, scaremongering to get votes. It’s playing on people’s ignorance and fear.'

The Lib Dem candidate is the second from the party to reveal they are HIV positive during this election campaign.

Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett, who is running for the Lib Dems in Vauxhall, central London, explained that he got HIV intentionally as he embarked on a path of self 'annihilation'

Mr Hyyrylainen-Trett - the first parliamentary candidate to publicly discuss being HIV positive - said he caught the virus when contemplating suicide, thinking it could be a way for him to die.

The 36-year-old revealed he attempted suicide on a few occasions, took countless drugs, got involved in the gay wrestling scene and put himself in vulnerable situations during a troubled phase of his life. 

He told Buzzfeed: 'I thought, "What's another way of doing it?" Even though I knew people were surviving from HIV, I thought, "Perhaps if I can make myself so ill, get the worst strain possible, that would be one way of getting rid of myself.'''

But the prospective MP said he realised once he was diagnosed he did not want HIV at all, and that all his actions were just an attempt to 'annihilate' himself. 

The disclosures have made Mr Hyyrylainen-Trett the first parliamentary candidate to discuss being HIV positive publicly. Labour MP Chris Smith previously announced his HIV positive status when he was leaving the House of Commons for the Lords.