Boris Johnson sees ‘absolutely no problem’ with hiking national insurance
Boris Johnson has once again shown his support for the hike on national insurance, stating that he has “absolutely no problem” with it being raised.
He added that it was “unquestionably the right thing for our country” as the money will be used to tackle the NHS backlog.
The NI hike came into force today and is expected to raise £39bn over the next three years for NHS services and social care.
Speaking to reporters during a hospital visit in Hertfordshire, Mr Johnson said there were now six million people on NHS waiting lists, adding: “We have got to give our doctors and nurses the funding to deal with that.
“We’ve got to do the difficult things, we’ve got to take the big decisions, the right decisions, for this country.”
Speaking in Lancashire, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer criticised not just the tax, but its timing: “In the middle of the worst cost of living crisis for decades, today the government chooses to increase taxes on working people.”
Although he agreed that NHS backlogs needed to be addressed, he added that the government would use the money raised to pay for its “incompetence and failure” over Covid fraud and unused equipment.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey, joined the criticism, saying increasing NI was an unfair way of raising the cash needed for health and social care.
He told BBC Breakfast: “It puts all the burden on working people – that is wrong.”
The rise of National Insurance, which was first announced in September, will see employees, employers, and the self-employed all pay 1.25p more in the pound on NI for a year.
The extra tax will be collected as a new Health and Social Care Levy from April 2023.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid told the BBC it would be “morally wrong” to expect future generations to pay for the funding that was needed now.
“The choice for us as a country is we either put that money in ourselves now, and if we don’t do it ourselves, we will have to borrow it,” he said.
“And that is mortgaging the future of our children and our grandchildren.”
He added: “Why should our children pay for our healthcare and our adult social care? They are going to have enough challenges as they grow older.”
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