Brown hikes taxes to boost NHS
British Chancellor Gordon Brown has cranked up taxes today to pay for increased spending on the NHS.
He raised national insurance contributions by 1% and froze personal tax allowances.
The two moves would mean a full-time earner on the average £21,400 (€34,766) a year would pay £3.70 (€6.01) a week more, Mr Brown told MPs.
The Chancellor said the measures were needed ‘‘to fund the National Health Service that we want’’.
In the first year they would raise an extra £6.1bn (€9.9bn), rising to £8.3bn (€13.5bn) in 2005/6, the Chancellor said.
