The disclosure comes as Conservative donors and businessmen attacked Mr Johnson and Rishi Sunak’s decision to press ahead with the increase despite mounting concerns over how many households will cope with a combination of the tax rise in April, together with a concurrent hike in energy bills and the rising prices of goods.
The hike faces significant opposition from Conservative MPs, but Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak have insisted it is “the right plan”.
Tom Tugendhat, a contender to succeed Mr Johnson, told the Telegraph the planned increase could “have a real and long-term damaging impact on people’s lives”, as he joins those urging the Prime Minister to scrap the plans.
Sir Rocco Forte, the hotelier, who gave £100,000 towards the Conservatives’ 2019 election campaign, said: “This government is no longer a conservative government. A time when most businesses are trying to recover from the devastating losses and extra indebtedness caused by government policies on Covid is not the time to raise the cost of doing business.”
Hugh Osmond, the founder of Punch Taverns, said: “Putting an extra tax on jobs at this critical time is kicking operators in the teeth when they are down, especially small businesses who have clung on through the bad times and now need to recruit new staff to get going.”
Meanwhile, writing in The Telegraph, Lord Bridges of Headley, a former Brexit minister, describes the Government’s economic policy as “left wing” and warns that Britain is drifting back to being “Brussels on Thames”, with Mr Johnson risking “taking us back to the soggy corporatism of the 1970s”.
Christopher Nieper, the managing director of the clothing manufacturer David Nieper, in Alfreton, Derbyshire, which donated £10,000 towards Mr Johnson’s 2019 leadership campaign, said: “A 1.25 per cent NI rise may seem trivial to the mandarins of the treasury, but in left-behind communities the impact is significant. If they want the private sector to spearhead levelling up in every corner of our country they should switch tax rises into tax incentives for skills.”
Mr Nieper added: “We are in one of Britain’s forgotten towns which the government would like to level up, but for our small business the NI tax rise will cost us and our staff £150,000 extra per year.”
