Boris Johnson Bets His Reputation On £12 Billion Health-Care Repair

On Wednesday, MPs will vote to enact a historic £12 billion healthcare levy, raising the tax burden to a post-World War II high as Boris Johnson puts his political career on fixing the country's ailing health and care systems.

Johnson readily admitted that the 1.25 percentage point increase in national insurance contributions (NICs) – to be rebadged a health and social care charge – would violate an explicit manifesto commitment when laying out the daring idea for a carved-alone healthcare tax.

Downing Street, on the other hand, is betting that framing the proposal as a response to the Covid epidemic, with a focus on reducing the NHS backlog, would persuade voters that it is required.

"I'll be very honest with you: this levy will be in violation of our manifesto vow." "A global epidemic, on the other hand, was not in our manifesto," Johnson added. He wouldn't rule out more tax hikes later in the legislature.

Labour leader Keir Starmer slammed the ideas as "a sticking plaster over a gaping wound," claiming that the income gained would be insufficient to address long-standing problems in the NHS and social care, and that raising NICs would be unjust to working people. However, the prime minister mocked Labour for failing to forward its own suggestions, claiming that "a plan beats no plan."

The Adam Smith Institute, a free-market think tank, called the plans "morally bankrupt," claiming that the government was asking "poorer workers to bail out billionaire property owners." It called the measure a "kick in the teeth" for "all of our country's young working people who have already been brutally hit by the pandemic."

Meanwhile, social care providers and organizations have cautioned that the additional funds will not be enough to improve standards for the over a million adults who receive social care.

"We applaud the immediate investment in social care," said Richard Kramer, CEO of disability charity Sense, "but we don't have trust that this is the long-term, sustainable, and substantial financing plan that was promised."