'My Gov't Won't Duck Tough Decisions': PM Johnson May Raise National Insurance Tax to Shore Up NHS

On Monday, Boris Johnson touted the NHS as "the pride of our United Kingdom", which he said "has been put under enormous strain" by the coronavirus pandemic. According to him, this is something that underlines the necessity of raising national insurance taxes.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to justify a hike in national insurance by saying that the National Health Service (NHS) will never recover from COVID-19 without tax increases, according to the British media, who have obtained extracts of his speech.

Earlier in the day, Johnson's spokesman said that his cabinet of senior ministers had already agreed to his proposal to reform how the social care system is funded.

During Tuesday's address to MPs, Johnson is set to frame the tax hike, which could increase up to £10 billion ($13.8 billion) a year, with a 1.25% rise in national insurance contributions (NICs) for employers and employees.

The tax hike would mean that a person earning an annual salary of 30,000 pounds ($41,461) would have to pay an additional 255 pounds ($352) per year.

The prime minister will also reportedly say that the social care reform is a "fair, reasonable, and necessary plan" to guarantee the NHS has the long-term funding it needs to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

His critics claim, however, that the tax hike would break a promise in the Conservative Party's 2019 election manifesto not to raise national insurance.

The Labour Party has argued that the move would affect younger and lower paid workers, as their contributions would be higher than those of older and wealthier people.

The claims followed Johnson praising the NHS on Monday, adding that the government "cannot expect it to recover alone".

"We must act now to ensure the health and care system has the long-term funding it needs to continue fighting COVID and start tackling the backlogs, and end the injustice of catastrophic costs for social care. My government will not duck the tough decisions needed to get NHS patients the treatment they need and to fix our broken social care system", the prime minister said.

The Financial Times later quoted an unnamed lawmaker as saying that Johnson's proposal is "totally sh*t". According to the MP, the plan means that "we are asking people on low incomes to pay more tax so that privileged kids can inherit expensive houses".