Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Boris Johnson plans to increase the amount both employers and employees pay by way of National Insurance contributions to help fund tax cuts for the well-off.
Johnson, who is front runner to become Prime Minister during the Tory leadership election, has vowed to raise the 40pc income tax threshold from £50,000 to £80,000.
His income tax plan will cost an estimated £10bn, which will also be funded, Johnson writes in today’s Daily Telegraph, by digging in to the £26.6bn which Chancellor Philip Hammond has set aside to cushion against a no-deal Brexit. Given that Johnson is one of the handful of Tory leadership hopefuls open to a no-deal Brexit, politicians have wondered where this cash will come from.
Given that Boris Johnson has called himself a One Nation Conservative – concerned about equality between the rich and the poor – others see the move as breathtakingly cynical and opportunistic, appealing directly to Conservative Party members about to vote in a new leader, many of whom as richer pensioners do not pay NI.
Both Johnson and leadership rival Jeremy Hunt have both pledged to cut corporation tax. Hunt also wants to use the Chancellor’s £26.6bn “fiscal headroom”, in