Families and businesses in Scotland are facing a tax bombshell of over £822m this year due to the UK Government decision to hike National Insurance.
The move to raise taxes on workers - instead of unearned income like property - was imposed by Boris Johnson as part of a Tory plan to fund social care in England.
The NI rise - which takes effect today - comes on top of a 54 per cent increase to Ofgem’s price cap and increases to council tax and water bills, mortgages, rents, food and transport costs.
Research by the Lib Dems has found the tax hike - which Scots will feel on their next payday - shows families in Scotland are set to pay out an estimated £329m more in National Insurance contributions.
This comes to an average of almost £130 per household, at a time when families are already facing soaring heating bills.
The Conservatives’ broken promise is also set to hit high streets across Scotland hard with a £493m tax raid on local businesses including shops, restaurants and cafes.
The Lib Dems want the UK Government to slash VAT to 17.5 per cent - claiming it would save families £600 per year.
Christine Jardine, the Scottish Lib Dem economy spokeswoman, said: "Families in Scotland are being crippled by the worst cost of living crisis in a generation, struggling to put food on the table and afford sky-high energy bills.
"The last thing they need is an unfair tax raid. Yet the Conservatives are piling on the misery by breaking their promise not to hike up national insurance, in a move that will hit our community hard."
The MP for Edinburgh West added: "We are fighting for a fair deal that would put money back into people’s pockets through an emergency tax cut.
"Our plans would kill two birds with one stone, helping those struggling to make ends meet while giving our treasured local businesses the shot in the arm they need.”
Boris Johnson today claimed he had "absolutely no problem" with hiking national insurance to help fund the NHS despite the cost to working families.
Speaking on a visit to Hertfordshire, the PM said: “I’ve got absolutely no problem with it. We’ve got to do the difficult things.
"We’ve got to take the big decisions, the right decisions for this country."
The Prime Minister claimed the UK Government would help families “in any way that we can" but added these "are unquestionably tough times caused by the end of the pandemic, the global inflation problem, the energy price spike".
UK health secretary Sajid Javid earlier defended the decision to hike up national insurance for millions of workers as he argued it is “right that we pay for what we are going to use as a country”.
He told Sky News: “It kicks in today, the new health and social care levy. All of the funding raised from it is going to go towards the extra £39 billion we are going to put in over the next three years to health and social care.
“It’s going to pay in the NHS for activity levels that are some 130% of pre-pandemic, it’s going to be nine million more scans, tests and procedures, meaning people will get seen a lot earlier."
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here.
