£12bn health and social care tax rise – how did your MP vote?
Local MPs, clockwise from top left: Tulip Siddiq, Mike Freer, Keir Starmer, Karen Buck and Catherine West - Credit: MPs' officers/PA
One of five local MPs voted for the government’s £12 billion tax hike to pay for health and social care.
Four Labour MPs – Keir Starmer, Tulip Siddiq, Catherine West and Karen Buck – rejected the plan, while Conservative MP Mike Freer sided with the Tory government.
The House of Commons voted by 319 to 248 in favour of the 1.25 percentage point increase in national insurance contributions.
Labour leader Keir Starmer, MP for Holborn and St Pancras, said the move will not fix social care, clear the NHS backlog or protect homeowners from having to sell their properties to pay for care.
Labour MPs, and some Conservative rebels, criticised the prime minister Boris Johnson for breaking his manifesto pledge to not raise taxes.
Tulip Siddiq, MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, said: “The prime minister promised to fix social care over two years ago but all we’ve got is a manifesto-breaking tax rise on workers that fails to make those with the broadest shoulders pay their fair share.”
Hornsey and Wood Green MP Catherine West said the proposal “does not fit the bill”, and that a “comprehensive” plan for health and social care is needed.
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Karen Buck, MP for Westminster North, pointed out that landlords renting out dozens of properties will not “pay a penny more”, but tenants and workers will.
“Obviously both the NHS and social care need additional investment – this isn’t the way to do it,” Ms Buck said.
Finchley and Golders Green MP Mike Freer said there is a need to get public finances “back in good order”, but also to clear the NHS backlog and "resolve” social care’s “longstanding problems”.
“No one likes paying more tax but a dedicated tax to fund these interventions is necessary,” Mr Freer said.
Prime minister Boris Johnson - Credit: PA
The prime minister said the change “deals with catastrophic costs faced by millions of people” including the risk of losing their homes and possessions.
The plan will come into effect in April 2022. It will see people no longer paying more than £86,000 in care costs – not including accommodation and food – over their lifetime.
The changes will be raised through a 1.25 percentage point rise in National Insurance, which working people and their employers pay for state benefits such as pensions.
The government says this will will cost £255 a year for a person earning £30,000, and £505 a year for someone on £50,000.
