MPs' poll shows Tory backing for tax relief on health insurance

Published on Sunday 23 August 2009 22:38

THE row over the Tories' support for the NHS has been reignited after a poll found that two-thirds of the party's MPs backed tax relief on private health insurance.

Chancellor Alistair Darling said the findings again showed the "two faces" of the Conservative Party on healthcare.

But shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley insisted the Tories were committed to ensuring that people had access to high-quality healthcare.

However, he said there was need for a "serious debate" about how healthcare was best delivered through the NHS.

The poll of 150 MPs, carried out by ComRes, found 66 per cent of Tories supported tax relief on standard rate income tax for private medical insurance.

In contrast, just 1 per cent of Labour MPs and 5 per cent of Liberal Democrats backed the idea.

More than half of the Conservatives, 55 per cent, favoured the introduction of tax relief on private healthcare fees, compared to only 1 per cent of Labour MPs.

Two-thirds of Conservatives, 67 per cent, said that patients should be able to receive treatment part paid for by the NHS and part privately funded, as against 36 per cent of Lib Dems and 14 per cent of Labour MPs.

The findings come after David Cameron sought last week to position the Tories as "the party of the NHS", after Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan had attacked it as a "60-year mistake".

Mr Darling said: "Tax breaks for private healthcare would take money away from the health service and undo the real progress we have made with the NHS over the last 12 years."