May: Tax will rise to pay for £20bn boost to NHS

TAX rises will be needed to pay for the £20billion-a-year spending boost for the NHS, Theresa May said yesterday. But she vowed the extra revenue would be raised in a ‘fair and balanced’ way.

Her comments come despite a pledge before the general election that she intended to reduce the taxes on working families.

To mark the 70th anniversary of the NHS earlier this year, Mrs May said it would get an extra £20billion-a-year by 2023.

‘We’ve said we’re putting a significant sum of money into the NHS – we believe that’s right,’ she told a national newspaper.

‘There will be a need to raise some money from people. But we want to be able to make sure we do that in a fair and balanced way – that will be what lies behind any decision we make. The key thing is people want to know that any money that goes in is going to be spent effectively, and that the money isn’t going to be wasted.’

In an interview with the Daily Express, Mrs May said NHS chiefs had been given the job of making sure the extra money goes where it is needed.

‘We’ve asked the NHS to put its ten-year plan together,’ she said. ‘ What I hear from people on the doorsteps is they want more money in the NHS – but they want to make sure it’s spent in the right way.

‘This is about patients – patients need to be at the forefront of our thinking when we’re looking at how this money should be spent. It’s about improving the care and treatment people receive.’

Chancellor Philip Hammond will set out how the extra spending will be paid for in the Budget later this year. He has already faced a backlash from Tory MPs after he suggested that the fuel duty freeze could be axed after eight years.

Before last year’s general election, Mrs May ditched a manifesto pledge previously made by David Cameron not to increase income tax, VAT or national insurance.

The Prime Minister said the socalled ‘tax lock’ would be scrapped because she did not want to make promises without being ‘absolutely sure’ she could deliver on them. But she did rule out increasing VAT beyond its current level of 20 per cent.

The tax lock forced Mr Hammond into an embarrassing Uturn following his March 2017 Budget, when he tried to hike national insurance contributions for self-employed workers. As she announced the end of the tax lock, Mrs May insisted the Tories were still a ‘low-tax party’ and said she intended to reduce taxes on working families.

‘We have absolutely no plans to increase the level of tax but I’m also clear I don’t want to make specific proposals on taxes unless I’m absolutely sure I can deliver on those,’ she said. ‘But it would be my intention with a Conservative government and a Conservative prime minister to reduce the taxes on working families.’

A report by the TaxPayers’ Alliance earlier this year found the tax burden has reached its highest level for almost half a century.

The taxman is set to take £724.9billion this year – 34.3 per cent of GDP. That is the highest proportion since Harold Wilson’s 1969-70 Labour government.

‘Patients at the forefront’