Polls shows Britons will pay more tax to protect the NHS

A poll conducted by ComRes for The Independent has found that a majority of people would pay more tax to protect the NHS.

When asked if they would pay more tax to maintain the current level of care and services provided by the NHS, 57% said they would, 41% said they disagreed and 2% said opted for ‘don’t know’. When broken down in terms of party allegiances, 57% of Conservatives, 67% of Labour supporters and 50% of Ukip voters said they were willing to pay more tax in order to protect the NHS. Meanwhile, all age groups, apart from 35-44 year-olds, supported the idea.

This should be encouraging for the Labour leadership because it’s suggested they want to make healthcare a key policy area in the run-up to the general election. This includes increasing NHS spending, and the party are in the process of decided how they would do this. Three of their potential ideas are: pay for the NHS through ring-fenced national insurance contributions; delaying the deficit-reduction programme  and a budget increase once the nation’s books have been balanced.

But, the poll also found that only 33% of people trust Miliband to protect the NHS, putting him only 4% ahead of Cameron who comes in at 29%. As you might expect, things look better among Labour supporters. 64% trust Miliband to safeguard the NHS but 31% don’t – a proportion that’s far too high only ten months from the general election.

When it comes to privatisation, 67% of people don’t mind who provides the services – whether  a private company or the NHS – but this is on the condition that they remain free of charge. And 59% of Labour supporters think the same.

Traditionally, the NHS is one the policy areas on which Labour polls best – what these latest polling figures suggest is given the tide of support the leadership should to be bolder when it comes to NHS spending.