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Tory MPs who have met Chancellor Rishi Sunak to call for action on the cost of living crisis have been ‘left with the impression’ that he is trying to distance himself from the hike in National Insurance that takes effect from April.
MPs met Mr Sunak last week to warn him that the 1.25 per cent rise will hammer families at a time when they are also being hit by sharp rises in energy bills, council tax, inflation and mortgage rates.
A source said: ‘Rishi referred to it as “the Prime Minister’s tax”, which seemed quite pointed, to put it mildly.
‘We were left with the impression that he didn’t want to be associated with it.’
The issue has been raised in particular by those ‘Red Wall’ Tory MPs in former Labour seats who fear they will be punished for the rise by voters at the next election.
The £12 billion tax grab, announced last year, was originally intended to help fund health and social care, but most of the money for the first three years will go toward clearing the post-Covid NHS backlog.
The revelation comes after our sister paper, the Daily Mail, launched a campaign to ‘spike the hike’ – or risk piling unsustainable pressure on struggling households.
Tory MPs who have met Chancellor Rishi Sunak (pictured on Thursday) to call for action on the cost of living crisis have been ‘left with the impression’ that he is trying to distance himself from the hike in National Insurance that takes effect from April
Negotiations between Boris Johnson and Mr Sunak over the creation of the new tax were fraught with tensions, with a source telling
