Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves. — Bloomberg
LONDON: Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves touted new funding for Britain’s National Health Service as an upside for voters in a crunch budget today, expected to be dominated by tax hikes and extra borrowing.The government will spend an extra £1.5bil (US$1.9bil) on surgical hubs and scanners as it tries to add two million NHS operations each year, the Treasury said.
It will also spend £70mil on new radiotherapy machines as part of a wider NHS spending package Reeves will set out today.
“I am putting an end to the neglect and under-investment,” Reeves said in the statement.
“We will be known as the government that took the NHS from its worst crisis in its history, got it back on its feet again and made it fit for the bright future ahead of it,” she said.
Labour’s pledge to repair the NHS is partly why Reeves is expected to announce a package of tax rises in her historic first budget, alongside a change to financial rules to allow her to borrow more for investment.
Reeves said she inherited a £22bil financial hole from the Conservatives, a shortfall she wants to plug through taxation, while also raising enough to spend more on public services.
The budget is expected to include up to £40bil in revenue-raising measures, such as a potential hike to the national insurance payroll tax for employers and increases to capital gains tax and inheritance tax.
The measures are politically sensitive for Keir Starmer’s government due to Labour’s election pledge that it had “no plans” to raise taxes.
The NHS funding announcement appears to be part of Treasury attempts to head off criticism of the tax rises.
It has highlighted other voter-friendly spending commitments including a plan to invest more in childcare services.
“Our NHS is broken but it’s not beaten, and this budget is the moment we start to fix it,” Health Secretary Wes Streeting said in the statement.
“Alongside extra funding, we’re sending crack teams of top surgeons to hospitals across the country, to reform how they run their surgeries, treat more patients and make the money go further.”
On Monday, Starmer warned voters to expect “tough stuff” in the budget and framed what he accepted would be unpopular tax rises. — Bloomberg
