Passing by a vote of 319 votes to 248, the result of an MP snap vote allows the Prime Minister to levy a new 1.25% tax on working class in the UK and their employers, in addition to adding an extra 1.25% to dividend tax.
The decision has no doubt angered some of the UK's hardest-working citizens in addition to the Labour Party officials.
Johnson’s government says the revenues will also work to overhaul the country’s struggling social care system; however, many believe the tax hike was just a strategy of his government to paying for mistakes in his disastrous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new 1.25 percentage point increase in National Insurance contributions - which breaks a manifesto pledge to not raise taxes - is expected to raise £36 billion for the health and social care system.
However, while Johnson said the plan is designed to “fix” the problems in social care, Bloomberg reports that just 5.4 billion pounds ($7.4 billion) of 36 billion pounds raised over the next three years will go to that purpose.
Currently, workers pay 12% National Insurance on earnings between £9,564 and £50,268. However, anything earned above this amount attracts a rate of just 2%.
During questioning on Wednesday, September 8, 2021, Labour leader Sir Keir R. Starmer said the planned tax rises would be ‘hammering’ working-class people.
“Who's going to pay for the cost of this failure? Working people... a care worker earning the minimum wage doesn't get a pay rise under this plan, but does get a tax rise. In what world is that fair?" he questions.
In addition to breaking promises and further taxing the people of the UK, the Johnson Government is currently executing a CoI on corruption allegations in the VI; however, it remains unclear the full cost of the inquiry being paid for by UK taxpayers.