Finding £10bn for infected blood victims gives Sunak a new pre-election problem

‘While no one listening to the harrowing testimonies would deny that victims deserve compensation, finding that money quickly risks hard choices’

Politicians were quick to voice their anger over the injustice. The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has described it as “the worst scandal of my lifetime” while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the injustice of thousands dying without recognition or compensation was a “mark of shame”. Yet what can’t be denied is that with the report recommending compensation for the victims, it is on the current Tory government to take steps now to fix it. And it won’t be cheap. The rumoured figure of £10bn is, by government standards, an eye-watering sum. To put it into perspective, that is the same cost as the two national insurance cuts announced in the Budget, which came in at £10.3bn a year.

The concern was that finding the money could – in the words of one Tory politician – “make or break” another national insurance cut, specifically Hunt’s preferred plan of an autumn fiscal event to cut another 2p off national insurance. Inevitably, Tory MPs are asking whether it will eat up any headroom for more election-friendly spending.

Source: Insurance Report (insurancereport.net)

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