EXCL: Cummings says £350m Brexit cash, not tax hike, should fund NHS

Dominic Cummings believes health and social care funding should have come out of the £350 million a week for the NHS which was promised by the Vote Leave campaign.

Answering a question by The London Economic as to whether the Brexit bus promise would have been a more appropriate funding strategy than the national insurance hike, Cummings replied: “obviously”.

He said the tax increase, which is set to impact on the young and poorest the most, is “very bad policy and politics”.

Dominic Cummings tells TLE reporter Andra Maciuca that NHS funding should come from the weekly flow of Brexit money, not tax hikes.

‘We should not attack the wealthy’

But he also said on his blog today that “we should not attack the wealthy”, whilst admitting there is “no justification for some of their subsidies”, saying they should be eliminated.

And he warned that all eyes should be on the future of Universal Credit.

He said: “There’s a massive scope for savings but no appetite from the prime minister. Also it is not just him – remember almost all Tory MPs who scream ‘savings, low tax’, then oppose every specific cut!

“Watch what happens on UC shortly…”

Cummings added Boris Johnson will “try to win one more election, then leave pronto to make money and have fun”, as he claims he was told by the prime minister in January last year.

Cummings’ response to TLE regarding health and social care funding strategy comes after Nick Ferrari confronted health secretary Sajid Javid over the £350 million a week Brexit promise.

Where is the £350m a week promised?

Ferrari asked Javid on Wednesday: “A couple of years ago we were told that if we left the European Union we’d be saving £350 million a week that would go to the NHS, that’s tens of billions of pounds we’ve saved.

“Where is it? Why do we need this additional funding now we’ve left the European Union?”

Blaming the coronavirus pandemic, the health secretary said the additional money which would have reportedly gone to the EU, “hasn’t been enough to meet the challenges.”

The conversation comes after the PM took a political gamble by scrapping a 2019 election promise and raising national insurance contributions.

Ferrari continued: “£350 million a week since January last year is tens of billions of pounds, why isn’t that bailing out the NHS?”

“Or, is it another lie from Boris Johnson just as the lie in his election manifesto, there is no £350 million a week, there are no promises, you cannot believe a word that comes out of a Conservative’s lips?”

The Health Secretary’s swift response was, “not at all,” as he rebutted Nick’s comments.

Pushing the government minister again, Nick asked “where is it?”

Andra Maciuca

Andra is a multilingual, award-winning NQJ senior journalist and the UK’s first Romanian representing co-nationals in Britain and reporting on EU citizens for national news. She is interested in UK, EU and Eastern European affairs, EU citizens in the UK, British citizens in the EU, environmental reporting, ethical consumerism and corporate social responsibility. She has contributed articles to VICE, Ethical Consumer and The New European and likes writing poetry, singing, songwriting and playing instruments. She studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield and has a Masters in International Business and Management from the University of Manchester. Follow her on: