A minister has defended the current plans for tax rises in April despite the cost-of-living crisis, as it emerged one million people will be pulled into a higher tax rate during the next four years.
Paul Scully, the small business minister, was speaking after analysis by the House of Commons library showed that 1.2 million workers' earnings will be pulled above the 40p threshold in the next four years by Treasury plans to freeze income tax thresholds.
Ministers are taking the cost-of-living crisis "really seriously", Mr Scully insisted as he doubled down on the planned increase in National Insurance.
"We know that the energy prices are an issue [and] that people are worried about the cost of living in general," he said. "That’s why we announced the biggest cash increase in the national living wage since its inception to kick in in April.
"That’s why we changed the taper for Universal Credit which puts ￡1,000 back into the pockets of the lowest approach. We’re trying to make this a targeted approach.
"[National Insurance] is a progressive tax, it means that the top 14 per cent of earners will pay about half of the entire levy so it is a progressive tax that means if you earn more you will pay more and contribute more."
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Sir John Redwood, the veteran Conservative MP, has been vocal in his criticisms of the Government in the last couple of months, blaming high taxes and what he sees as poor support for farmers for last month's Tory defeat in the North Shropshire by-election.
Sir John was also among MPs who rebelled against Boris Johnson's social care tax grab when proposals for a National Insurance hike went before the Commons in September.
This morning, the former minister upped the ante further, writing: "If the government wants us to grow less food, produce less energy and stop making diesel and petrol cars how would it like us to earn a living?
"If the government wants to level up it needs to encourage us to make and grow things people want to buy. It needs to cut tax rates, not increase them. It needs to allow more cheaper domestic energy supply."
Conservative MPs in Red Wall seats have got the jitters, and so they should, writes Nigel Farage, and two polls at the weekend are causing the alarm.
One puts Labour 16 per cent ahead in those key seats that Boris Johnson would need to retain to win the next general election. And a constituency poll shows there is a new threat to the Right of Johnson's Conservative Party.
Some will argue that these are standard midterm problems and that a couple of polls mean little. But the data suggests that on the ground, something significant is happening which has, as yet, gone unnoticed in London. A revolt on the Right is brewing, and it poses a huge threat to the Prime Minister.
This has happened before. Exactly ten years ago, I campaigned in the Barnsley Central by-election as Ukip leader. This urban South Yorkshire seat is rock solid Labour territory. Ukip barely got a mention in the polls or in media coverage of the campaign.
Listen to Nigel Farage on today's episode of Chopper's Politics
Boris Johnson's flat refurbishment messages do not show any conflict of interest, Paul Scully maintained this morning.
It emerged yesterday that Mr Johnson agreed to consider proposals for a new festival in private messages with Lord Brownlow, the Tory donor who helped him to fund the redecoration of his Downing Street flat.
"The important thing about the Great Exhibition line is that it was dealt with properly, the Department looked at it and hasn’t taken it forward," Mr Scully told Times Radio.
"I can’t see the conflict in it... There was no conflict of interest, nothing has gone ahead as a result, [the Department of] Culture, Media and Sport looked at it as they would any proposal.
"It’s a couple of lines in a WhatsApp - Lord Brownlow is a bright guy, a successful guy, I’m sure he would have approached the Culture, Media and Sport Department who looked at it and have decided not to take it forward.”
On the Today programme, Mr Scully added that the Prime Minister "will get approaches from people all the time" and the issue had been tackled by DCMS.
The Government is not implementing income tax threshold freeze as a "stealth tax", a minister insisted, as he said those with "broader shoulders" should pay more.
Asked about the effects of the measure, as reported by our own Lucy Fisher this morning, Paul Scully said Britain has the best rate in the G20 and it has increased "by something like 50 per cent" in the last five years.
"What we are making sure is that we're targeting the lowest-paid, we're taking the lowest-paid out of tax entirely," he told the Today programme.
"In terms of the people that you're talking about, we've got to get the balance right so we've got taxes coming so we can pay for public services and pay for the NHS, which is obviously first and foremost in people's minds with the pandemic and the challenges that has."
Mr Scully denied suggestions the Government was imposing a "stealth tax" and said the Government had was "really open" in last year's Budget, adding: "It's right that we use the revenues for stronger growth to pay for public services, and the burden of that falls on the people with the broader shoulders, the highest-paid".
The small business minister was not able to answer a question about the price of a pint of milk during his Sky News appearance this morning.
Paul Scully was asked by presenter Sam Washington: "I'm just wondering how in touch you are with all of this. Can you tell us how much the national minimum wage is, for example, and the price of a pint of milk?"
"The national minimum wage is ￡8.91, that's going up to ￡9.50," Mr Scully said. "I don't buy my milk in pints these days, I tend to buy the four pint... larger... larger... cartons, but this isn't about..."
Pressed on how much a larger four-pint carton was, he replied: "Sam, it's not about... Sam it's not... Sam, what it's about is making sure that... We have a massive pandemic, as you unwind that pandemic you get into the global situations of supply chains, of energy costs, that are affecting not just people in Britain but people around the world.
"We've got to make sure we look after people in this country. What we're doing is we're targeting the people on minimum wage and on Universal Credit."
A minister has defended the current plans for tax rises in April despite the cost-of-living crisis, as it emerged one million people will be pulled into a higher tax rate.
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