“People are willing to pay more in tax if that means improvements to public services. They recognise that our schools, hospitals and other essential services are under huge strain and in need of investment.”
While the Tories and their supporters in the right-wing press have been trying to attack the Labour Party over recent tax rises, research shows that voters have accepted the £40bn tax rises in Rachel Reeves’s first budget as “necessary” in order to improve public services.
In October’s budget, the chancellor announced a number of tax increases in order to fund investment in public services, with the largest revenue-raiser a £25bn increase in employer national insurance contributions (NICs).
Other measures included inheritance tax on farms and charging VAT on private school fees.
While the right-wing press has tried to portray the measures as lacking support, a survey of 5,800 voters, carried out by academics at the University of Bristol, found that 48% of respondents thought the tax rises were “necessary”, 18% were neutral, 24% thought them “unnecessary”, and 10% said they did not know.
Mubin Haq, the chief executive of the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, which commissioned the research, told the Guardian: “People are willing to pay more in tax if that means improvements to public services. They recognise that our schools, hospitals and other essential services are under huge strain and in need of investment.”
The survey also showed that voters were willing to support the recent tax rises designed to fund investment in public services, even though more than half of those surveyed (57%) expected to be worse off as a result.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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