‘Daylight robbery!’ Sunak savaged over National Insurance ‘Bad economics, worse politics!’
National Insurance rise is ‘daylight robbery’ says Sir John Redwood
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Conservative MP Sir John Redwood has described Rishi Sunak’s plans to raise National Insurance by 1.25 percent as “daylight robbery” and called for April’s planned increase to be axed. The Chancellor was also blasted for pursuing “bad economics, worse politics” with the policy which breaks the Conservative’s 2019 election manifesto.
Sir John told LBC: “I’m a conservative, I fought the election saying I wouldn’t put National Insurance.
“I didn’t like the rise and only ten of my colleagues, I think, joined me in voting against it.
“I urge them all to tell the Chancellor now this is wrong Chancellor! It’s bad economics, it’s worse politics.
“It is wrong for the British people that they’re going to have this daylight robbery from the Treasury, and exactly the month where they’ve got dig deep to pay the gas bill.”
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Asked what would happen in the polls if the Prime Minister doesn’t ditch the National Insurance tax hike, Mr Redwood replied: “Well it makes it much more difficult for him and for the party generally.
“Because I think our opinion poll ratings are already reasonably low, are not going to like what happens in April, unless people really believe the Government understand their problem, and is on their side.
“The Government can’t magic away the gas rise we are short of gas, and it’s gonna take time to solve that problem out, but they can get rid of the tax rights.”
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He added: “I think that would make all the difference to the ratings of both the Prime Minister and the party if they had this late stage, the courage to say you know what, that wasn’t a good idea.
“You know what we’re actually better off than we thought we were going to be, so we’ve actually got the excuse, we found the money.”
National Insurance contributions are due to go up by 1.25 percentage points in April as consumers face mounting cost-of-living pressures.
The tax rise will come on top of soaring energy bills and escalating UK inflation, which has hit a fresh 30-year high of 5.5 percent, it was announced on Wednesday.
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The National Insurance decision has caused a row in Westminster, with some Conservative MPs calling on the Prime Minister to drop or at least postpone the increase.
Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak have stood firm on the Tory manifesto-breaking fiscal policy, which is predicted by the Treasury to raise £12 billion per year to help tackle the Covid-induced NHS backlog and reform social care in the long term.
In the study carried out by polling company Ipsos, 31 percent of Britons support the National Insurance increase – marginally more than the 28 percent who are in opposition.
A similar proportion, 31 percent, neither support nor oppose it.
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