‘Completely wrong!’ John Redwood tears apart Boris plan to hike NI for social care reform

National Insurance: Boris Johnson criticised by John Redwood

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Speaking to talkRADIO on Monday Sir John Redwood accused the government of U-turning on manifesto pledges and Conservative Party policy with the proposed plans. He lambasted the move as detrimental to the jobs market and raised concerns a National Insurance tax hike will set back the post-Covid economic recovery progress. His comments come as Boris Johnson will push through a reported one-percent National Insurance tax rise to fund social care despite growing opposition from his cabinet and Conservatives in the north of England. The plans would mean Mr Johnson smashing a core manifesto pledge of keeping taxes low smashed with many accusing the government of unfairly targeting the young with the policy. 

Sir John Redwood said: “Let’s see what they actually propose and want to do.

“There has been an awful lot of chat in the press – I hope a lot of it is wrong.”

Sir John then set about slamming the move claiming it would be “completely wrong” for the party to “go back on our manifesto promise to keep income tax, VAT and National Insurance rates down”.

The Covid Recovery Group member added how he felt it was wrong to impose a tax on jobs “when you’re trying to stimulate a job-rich recovery” given the fallout of the Coronavirus pandemic and the efforts required to re-stimulate the economy after 18-months of lockdowns and setbacks.

JUST IN: Self-employed warned of NI hike: ‘Have to raise taxes’

Sir John went on to call on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to take aim at the Office of Budget Responsibility for a string of “very pessimistic and wrong forecasts” surrounding the deficit.

He accused the OBR of “exaggerating” the deficit by “£90 billion last year” and slammed the for not apologising for the prediction.

Sir John added: “This year already we are doing £20 billion better on the deficit on the year to date than they forecast.”

The MP for Wokingham went on to question why tax needs to be raised at all, especially ones aimed at the young, lower-paid and working despite the positive recovery. 

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He claimed the recovery is already “bringing in a lot more tax revenue” as people get back to work and earn more and urged Boris Johnson to step back from the plans.

Meetings to discuss the social care plan for England have been taking place between the PM, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid across the weekend, according to government sources.

The plans would see Boris Johnson’s manifesto promise to solve the social care crisis in England begin the make pace despite the Prime Minister making no prior action on the issue.

It has been reported the government is considering increasing the National Insurance rate by one percentage point from 12% to 13%, while the rate for higher earnings goes up from 2% to 3%.

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According to government estimates, raising the National Insurance rates for employees by one percentage point would raise about £5.4bn a year while increasing the rate paid by employers from 13.8% to 14.8% would raise about £6.5bn a year. The government argue implementing rates for others such as the profits of self-employed people would raise about another £600m.

Around 12% of earnings up to about £50,000 a year go towards National Insurance, above that point you pay 2% of your earnings.

That means somebody on £20,000 a year would pay an extra £104, while someone on £50,000 would pay £404 more.

National Insurance is a tax paid on earnings and the profits of self-employed workers. When you are employed you start paying National Insurance once you’re earning just under £10,000 a year.

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