Senior minister declines to rule out extending freeze on income tax thresholds
Wes Streeting also stressed the need for reform as well as investment in the NHS
A senior minister has declined to rule out extending the freeze on income tax thresholds as speculation about possible tax increases in the Budget continued to mount.
Wes Streeting said he would not guess measures that the Chancellor might introduce in the Budget on October 30, but told broadcasters on Sunday morning that he had already agreed health spending with Rachel Reeves.
“If you’re asking me whether I would vote against anything in the Chancellor’s Budget? The answer is no, of course I’m not going to do that,” the Health Secretary told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News.
Mr Streeting went on to say: “What we’re not going to do is duck the difficult decisions, have Government by gimmick, short-term sticking plasters, because that is exactly how we ended up in this situation.”
He later told Sky News: “There are a whole load of choices that we will have to make that we would have preferred not to. But if we don’t make the choices now, we will end up paying a much heavier price for failure.
“We’re not prepared to do that. We’re going to make the right long term decisions.”
Mr Streeting said he had reached a deal on NHS funding with the Chancellor.
He said: “I’m not going to get into specific figures.”
He also stressed the need for reform as well as investment in the NHS, saying he was “conscious” that money spent on health was money that could not be spent in other areas.
The Labour MP for Ilford North said investment was much-needed across the board.
“There isn’t a single part of Government and the public sector where there aren’t real crises,” he said.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader and Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said she would oppose the rumoured increase of national insurance contributions for employers, and an increase in fuel duty after being frozen for more than a decade.
Ms Cooper said she was worried about the impact of the national insurance policy on care providers, which could send some from a state of “crisis to collapse”.
Speaking to Sky News, Ms Cooper said: “One of our concerns in particular is that there are many very small care homes and small care providers around the country, and they… are on the cliff edge as it stands.
“If the Government were to put up employer contributions, particularly for these small businesses, for these small care homes, I think we might see many of them go from a state of crisis to a state of collapse with no choice but to close their doors.”
She went on to say: “The rumour as it stands is that the Government intends to raise the national insurance contributions on all companies, irrespective of whether they’re small or large… I think we probably end up having to vote no against that.”
The St Albans MP said she feared an increase in fuel duty would hit already stretched personal budgets, and said a lack of effective public transport meant the impact would be harsher.
She said: “We are deeply concerned about this proposal during a cost-of-living crisis.
“If there was a viable alternative in terms of being able to use buses and proper cycle routes and being able to use the train and they were accessible and affordable and comfortable and reliable, then I think it might be easier to stomach.”
Ms Cooper said she wanted to see a tax on banking profits to help pay for spending instead, and backed investing in infrastructure.
She said: “If you look back over the last three or four years, the four or five biggest banks made about £40 billion in profit.
“What we’ve said is if you reverse the tax cuts they’ve had since 2015 that would raise £4 billion. So that’s only a tenth of the profits that they have made.”
She added: “There are rumours that the Chancellor may change the fiscal rules to allow more investment to rebuild our struggling hospitals and schools, we would support that as well.”
