Thank you for writing to me concerning the potential impact of the UK Labour Government’s employer national insurance changes on general practice in Wales.
I am extremely disappointed with the decisions made by the Labour UK Government in its new budget. Not only has the Labour Party introduced £40 billion worth of tax rises, they have allocated these funds poorly and failed to protect core aspects of care provision. It is the duty of the Labour Welsh Government to soften the harmful blows inflicted on Wales by the UK Labour Government’s policies, but they have failed in this duty.
The Chancellor’s decision to increase Employer’s National Insurance (ENI) by 1.2%, as well as to reduce the threshold at which employers pay towards ENI down to £5,000, will have a catastrophic impact on the standards of service provision for all impacted, including general practice. Current estimates predict costs for GP practices to cover the additional national insurance contributions across Wales to stand at approximately £7 million, with England to reach as high as £260 million. When we consider that Wales has already lost over a hundred GP practices since 2012 on Labour’s watch, we cannot overstate the significance of the additional pressures they are choosing to push onto our remaining practices.
I note that the UK Health Secretary, Wes Streeting MP, has acknowledged the concerns of GPs and has not ruled out the possibility of allocations being made for the year ahead that can remedy this. I sincerely hope that the Health Secretary makes the correct decision on this issue.
My Welsh Conservative colleagues and I will continue to highlight the damage done by this policy and will push the Welsh Government to make the case for the UK Government to use the extra monies from the Autumn Budget to support reducing NHS waiting list and to strengthen healthcare provision across Wales.