The Liberal Democrats have announced they would plug funding gaps for the NHS and social care by putting a penny on income tax, in their first major manifesto commitment of the election campaign.

The tax would raise an additional £25 Million for the Oldham area, with £18 m for the NHS and £7m for social care each year.
The Liberal Democrats’ manifesto will also set out a ‘five-point recovery plan’ for NHS and social care services in their manifesto.

At least 70% of Britons would happily pay an extra 1p in every pound if that money was guaranteed to go to the NHS, an ITV poll found last October.

Jonathan Smith, Parliamentary candidate for Oldham East and Saddleworth said:

“Only this weekend a lady in Saddleworth told me she had to go all the way to Bury by 7am for an operation which was then cancelled.  It was not the first time.  It is not the doctors’ and nurses’ fault; it’s the government’s for not investing. People are being denied the care they need.

In my own work in social care, I see dedicated professionals struggling to maintain safe and humane levels of service while resources are stripped to the bone

Garth Harkness, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate for Oldham West and Royton said:

“We are seeing patients lying on trolleys in hospital corridors, urgent operations being cancelled and mental health care neglected by this government.

“The Liberal Democrats are prepared to be honest with people and say that to secure the future of the NHS we will all need to chip in a little more- but the richest chip in most.
“We cannot continue asking the system to deliver more and more, without giving it the resources to do so. We need to save our NHS “

Jonathan Smith added,

“The NHS was once the envy of the world and this pledge is the first step in restoring it to where it should be.

“A penny in the pound to save the NHS is money well spent in our view.

“But simply providing more money on its own is not enough and that’s why this is just the first step in our plan to protect health and care services in the long-term.”

Liberal Democrat 5 point plan 

1. Introduce a 1% raise in income tax, generating £6bn a year
2. Ring-fence ALL of this for the NHS and care, investing efficiently and effectively in social care, primary care, mental health and public health
3. Consolidate all health and care taxes into a single, dedicated Health and Care Tax, showing on people’s payslips exactly what we spend it on
4. Establish a cross-party health and care convention, consulting and working with patients, the public, NHS staff and care workers, to ensure our health and social care is sustainable and integrated
5. Introduce an independent agency to monitor health and care budgets, which would report every three years on how much money the system needs to flourish.