Lib Dems say 1p income tax rise would fund £31m boost to NHS in Brighton and Hove

A penny on income tax would give the NHS and social care in Brighton and Hove a £31 million boost, according to the Liberal Democrats.

The party said that the money was vital to plug funding gaps as it made the tax rise it first key policy pledge of the general election campaign.

Hove parliamentary candidate Carrie Hynds said: “Right now in our city we are seeing patients lying on trolleys in hospital corridors, urgent operations being cancelled and the elderly being denied the care they need.

“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.

“A penny in the pound would allow us to invest in improving local NHS services and supporting our mental health services that are in crisis.

“This Conservative government has left our health and care services chronically underfunded and while the crisis gets worse they just don’t seem to care.

“We cannot continue asking the system to deliver more and more without giving it the resources to do so.”

Former Brighton parliamentary candidate Paul Chandler acknowledged the extent of the deficit at the trust that runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust ended the financial year – at the end of March – with a deficit of almost £70 million.

Mr Chandler, who was chosen by the Lib Dems to fight Brighton Pavilion before the party decided to stand aside, said: “Our additional money is intended to be on top of any measures that need to be taken to reduce current deficits.

“I suspect those deficits will be written off in due course by using contingency funds.

“The money that we are raising via a penny increase in the basic rate of income tax (about £4 billion) will be a committed and ring-fenced amount that will be added to the NHS base budget for every year.

“This contrasts with recent Labour budget increases on those earning over £80,000 which the party estimates will raise less than £2 billion a year.”

Mr Chandler, who stood in Brighton Kemptown in the 2015 general election, added: “Additional funding for Brighton and Hove is calculated by assuming an even spread of the extra revenue across all the NHS trusts in England.”