Exclude GPs from tax hike, urge Oxfordshire Lib Dem MPs

Chancellor Rachel Reeves faced concerns from GPs, care homes, hospices and charities after she announced employers’ national insurance contributions would increase.

She announced that extra funding for the NHS and other public sector organisations would cover the cost of the tax rise.

However, Oxfordshire’s Liberal Democrat MPs say the decision would only add to the pressures facing these care providers, and they would not benefit from the extra funding the NHS and wider public sector will receive.

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In a joint statement, MPs Layla Moran, Freddie van Mierlo, Calum Miller, Charlie Maynard and Olly Glover said: “When we speak to GPs and care providers in Oxfordshire, they tell us about the immense pressure they're under after years of Conservative mismanagement.

“The Chancellor’s decisions in the Budget risk pushing these crucial services to the brink—some could even be forced to shut up shop.

“People must be able to access decent health and care services.

“To deliver this, the government must change course and exempt GPs and care providers here in Oxfordshire from the tax hike.”

Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, Layla Moran, who is also Oxford West and Abingdon MP, said: “GP surgeries and care providers are the frontline of the NHS, delivering vital care to millions of people every day.

Layla Moran (Image: PA) “These services are already overstretched, patients are frustrated, and morale across the system is dangerously low.

“Piling yet more pressure with increased employer NI contributions will exacerbate problems across the whole of the NHS, making it even harder to deliver high quality care.

She added the Health and Social Select Committee will look to the government to reassure people that money announcing in the Budget will flow through to mitigate impacts on patients. 

Rachel Reeves addressed concerns over how increasing employers’ national insurance contributions would impact on GPs, care homes and hospices.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves In an interview with Sky News, she said: “What the tax increases on Wednesday paid for in part was a £22.6 billion investment into the National Health Service and the National Health Service will now make the allocations to GPs, for example.

“There’s enough money now in the NHS budget to fund those priorities.

 “Care homes got in the Budget on Wednesday a £600 million settlement, local government got a 3.2 per cent increase, so above inflation, a real terms increase in spending this week, so I’m confident that those services will carry on running properly.”

Speaking to BBC presenter Laura Kuenssberg, she admitted that raising employers’ national insurance contributions was not on the agenda before the election.