Cabinet faces grassroots anger over tax rise
Activists in constituencies of senior ministers warn of Tory members’ dismay at NHS and social care levy
CABINET ministers will face a hostile reception from the Tory party’s grassroots when they return to their constituencies this weekend after waving through manifesto-busting tax rises in Parliament. One constituency chairman said he was “greatly saddened” that the liberation of the British people from the state under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s was now being “rolled back by a Conservative Prime Minister”.
Boris Johnson is experiencing a backlash over the increase, with activists, donors and former party chairmen all expressing their dismay at the 1.25 percentage point increase in National Insurance to pay for the NHS and social care. The Prime Minister has also faced questions about whether his Conservative Party remains committed to low taxes after he raised the tax burden to the highest level in 70 years.
A sample of constituencies represented by four members of the Cabinet – Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister; Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary; Therese Coffey, the Work and Pensions Secretary; and Alok Sharma, the Cop26 president – uncovered concern among local party volunteers.
Richard Robinson, chairman of the Conservative Association in Mr Gove’s Surrey Heath constituency, said: “Some Conservatives are going to be very, very upset about this, so I hope the country can understand why they’ve done it.
“There is a problem and it needs to be solved but I do have some questions about this.”
Stephen Boulton, a senior official in Mr Shapps’s Welwyn Hatfield constituency, said: “A lot of older working people are now going to have to start paying more tax and that’s not something they’ve ever been expected to do before. And putting up National Insurance during a pandemic just isn’t very nice.”
Sir Michael Bunbury, the local party president in Ms Coffey’s Suffolk Coastal constituency, said: “A Conservative government raising taxes is very, very hard to take. A pandemic wasn’t written into our manifesto, but National Insurance is not a good tax because it’s a tax on jobs.
“The Prime Minister is really stressing true-blue Conservatives with policies that as a columnist he would have ridiculed. I think we shall lose members.” He added: “A lot of my generation felt that the country was liberated post1979 from its destination to go down the plughole. I am greatly saddened that some of that liberation, characterised by Mrs Thatcher, is being rolled back by a Conservative Prime Minister.”
Tom Marino, chairman of the Reading West Conservatives in Mr Sharma’s constituency, said: “I don’t think intergenerational warfare benefits anybody, but a lot of people have been in touch to say that it’s younger people who are working and earning less who will be paying the price for this.”