Thank you to those who contacted me regarding the plans to increase National Insurance. 

I am sorry that we have had to raise National Insurance. The money raised, almost £12 billion per year, is intended to first go to the NHS to fund the backlog from post-COVID pressures and then go to improve Social Care. I fully appreciate the pressure this will add to hard-pressed taxpayers but I speak to those who work in the local NHS and Social Care and these extraordinary times need extra funding to help the most vulnerable. I am also sorry that this breaches a manifesto pledge and hope my party will reflect that no-one can predict the future.

Rather than put too much on the email, I spoke in the chamber as to my concerns and it is probably most impactful if I ask you to view the speech and see if you agree with me here. The day previously, I asked the Prime Minister about options for reform, you can watch this here.

As the speech demonstrates, I hold concerns as to whether Social Care will get the amount raised from these increases in the latter years. I would also like to see more radical Social Care reform, where all of us pay in and we use social care insurance (as exists in Germany as a model). All of this said, I supported the increase because, from speaking to the local NHS team, it is clear that more resilience and resource is needed. That said, more value for money has to be delivered in return.

Whilst I have my doubts as to the model to raise these funds, I am also reminded that, back in 2002, Tony Blair increased National Insurance to put more money into the NHS so it is not without precedent. The Labour Party has sought to make a distinction of these two decisions by maintaining that 2002 saw a high growth in wages which allowed such an increase.  However, the highest wage growth in 2002 was a 2.4% increase between May and July. Between April and June this year total real pay increased by 6.6%, and the ONS estimate that once the impact of people coming off furlough has been taken into consideration, wage growth in this period was 3.2% - 4.4% - that’s 0.8% to 2% higher than the highest wage growth period in 2002.

I shared my views in a recent article for the Bexhill and Battle Observer (which also deals with some of the other challenges we are currently facing).  I hope you will read this via the following link to my website here.

I do appreciate the impact this will have on hard-pressed taxpayers and I can assure you that my focus will be on ensuring the extra taxes we will now be paying will deliver value for money and that the spending needs to be reduced so we can give more back rather than take away.