Taxes will rise to pay for NHS spree – May

TAXES will rise this autumn to help fund a £400million-a-week NHS cash boost, Theresa May warned yesterday.

The Prime Minister suggested middle class families will pay more to help put the Health Service on a sustainable financial footing.

Mrs May confirmed the package will be worth an extra £20.5billion a year by 2023. She said the NHS could no longer go on with ‘sticking plaster’ solutions and vowed to tackle red tape and waste.

The PM also said she was willing to look again at controversial 2012 reforms designed to hand huge chunks of the NHS budget to Clinical Commissioning Groups of GPs.

She yesterday suggested some of the changes had created a ‘barrier to progress’. The PM said the new cash settlement would be funded in part by the so-called ‘Brexit dividend’ – money the Government no longer has to pay in EU membership fees.

Unveiling the policy at the Royal Free Hospital in north London, Mrs May said taxpayers would ‘have to contribute a bit more in a fair and balanced way to support the NHS we all use’. However, Labour signalled they would try to vote down a funding package unless tax rises are focused on the rich.

The Brexit dividend will more than cover the £20billion spending boost for the NHS, a group of economists claimed last night. A report by the pro- Brexit Economists for Free Trade (EFT) claimed the economy will grow thanks to improved exports, less red tape and an end to contributions to Brussels – and even leave £5billion to spare.