REPORTS this week suggest the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer have agreed on a plan to raise the cost of national insurance contributions (NICs) by one penny in the pound to pay for the rising costs of social care for the elderly and vulnerable.

Pushing up NICs is regressive, hitting poorer workers hardest; it breaks a Tory manifesto pledge; and it will not resolve the crisis in care services.

Labour’s shadow front bench should make the party’s opposition clear and insist instead on a solution to the care crisis that is fair for all: a wealth tax to pay the costs, removing speculators and private finance from provision and serious improvements in the pay and conditions of those in the notoriously poorly-paid sector itself.

There should be no question that the Labour Party and the entire left should oppose this tax hike. After a lost decade for earnings under Conservative-led governments, with pre-pandemic average pay no higher than before the 2008 financial crisis, there is no justification for squeezing working people still further.