Kemi Badenoch has accused the government of producing a Budget to “milk the private sector” as she stepped up her party’s criticism of the rise in National Insurance (NI) paid by employers. The Conservative leader also used her second appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions to ask how the government would help local councils deal with the knock-on impact of the NI increase, particularly as it relates to higher social care costs. Sir Keir Starmer said the Conservatives wanted the extra investment for schools and the NHS announced in the Budget, but did not know how they would pay for it.”The magic money tree is back,” he told MPs.The NI rise, announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her Budget last month, will see the tax employers pay on employees’ earnings rise from 13.8% to 15% from April 2025.At the same time, the payment threshold will be lowered from £9,100 to £5,000 a year.Reeves said the changes would raise £25bn a year and were necessary to put the public finances on a “firm footing”.The NHS and the rest of the public sector will be shielded from the rise, but GP practices, run as businesses while delivering NHS services, will be impacted. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey asked the prime minister if he would exempt GPs and health care providers from the rise. Sir Keir said the government would ensure GPs “have got the resources we need” and that funding arrangements would be set out “later this year”. Badenoch said the tax rise would see councils having to pay more for social care provision and asked if the government was considering lifting a cap on council tax to fill what she claimed was a £2.4bn hole in local government finances.The prime minister said the Budget had included £600m to deal with …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnKemi Badenoch has accused the government of producing a Budget to “milk the private sector” as she stepped up her party’s criticism of the rise in National Insurance (NI) paid by employers. The Conservative leader also used her second appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions to ask how the government would help local councils deal with the knock-on impact of the NI increase, particularly as it relates to higher social care costs. Sir Keir Starmer said the Conservatives wanted the extra investment for schools and the NHS announced in the Budget, but did not know how they would pay for it.”The magic money tree is back,” he told MPs.The NI rise, announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her Budget last month, will see the tax employers pay on employees’ earnings rise from 13.8% to 15% from April 2025.At the same time, the payment threshold will be lowered from £9,100 to £5,000 a year.Reeves said the changes would raise £25bn a year and were necessary to put the public finances on a “firm footing”.The NHS and the rest of the public sector will be shielded from the rise, but GP practices, run as businesses while delivering NHS services, will be impacted. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey asked the prime minister if he would exempt GPs and health care providers from the rise. Sir Keir said the government would ensure GPs “have got the resources we need” and that funding arrangements would be set out “later this year”. Badenoch said the tax rise would see councils having to pay more for social care provision and asked if the government was considering lifting a cap on council tax to fill what she claimed was a £2.4bn hole in local government finances.The prime minister said the Budget had included £600m to deal with …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
