The Government has been slammed after it was revealed they have refused to reveal the impact of their pending jobs tax 56 times since Rachel Reeves’ Budget.
Nearly five dozen attempts by MPs from across parliament, including Labour, have table parliamentary questions demanding answers about the pain Ms Reeves’ National Insurance hike will cause.
However they have pointblank refused to reveal the answer, simply repeating their line that it’s necessary “to repair the public finances and help raise the revenue required to increase funding for public services, the Government has taken the difficult decision to increase employer National Insurance.”
The Treasury has also used excuses such as “the information requested is not available centrally”, or “we provide support to charities through a range of reliefs and exemptions, including reliefs for charitable giving”.
Labour is equally refusing to come clean over what impact the NI rise will have on essential services like care homes, GPs and charities like the RNLI and air ambulance.
Yesterday the Chancellor finally admitted that her manifesto-breaking tax rise will not be “easy” for businesses to “absorb”.
The rise will clobber firms with an extra £20 billion in tax, with employers contributions rising from 13.8% on salaries above £9,100, to 15% on salaries above £5,000.
Just one area, GP practices, are set to see the average surgery tax bill increase by around £20,000 a year.
The Resolution Foundation, which used to be headed by a now-Labour MP, has warned that the rise will be a “tax on working people”.
Today the Conservative Party is hoping to turn the screw on Labour, using their opposition day debate to call on the Government to publish the full impact assessment of its jobs tax.
The opposition day motion, if passed by MPs, will express regret that the NICs rise “will lead to increased costs for businesses and lower wages for employees, including in particular young people; will force companies to cut employment, leading to some 130,000 job losses according to Bloomberg Economics”.
It adds further regret that: “the Government has not published its complete assessment of the effect this policy will have on the public and private sector, or indeed any impact assessment; and regrets also that as a result of the Government’s economic policies GDP forecasts are down, inflation is up and business confidence is down.”
Gareth Davies MP, shadow Financial Secretary, told the Express: “As the OBR and the British Retail Consortium have said, Labour’s Jobs Tax will have serious consequences for our economy.”
“Businesses big and small, charities, childcare providers and many other organisations are saying it will force them to make cuts to their services, lower wages, prevent them hiring staff, or shutter their businesses altogether.
“Labour must now come clean about the true impact of their tax raid and publish a full and proper assessment of the damage it will do the various sectors of the economy impacted.
“Anything less would show a callous disregard for the workers who have to face the consequences of their actions.”
