UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has secured Parliament’s backing for his manifesto-breaking tax hike, but the move has also led to some fundamental questions about what the Conservative Party stands for in today’s Britain. On Wednesday, the House of Commons voted by 319 to 248 in favour of the 1.25 percentage point increase in national insurance contributions despite deep unhappiness among many Conservative MPs. Five Conservative backbenchers voted against the measure while another 37 did not vote, although not all would have deliberately abstained, as some would have had permission to be away from Westminster. Johnson said the £12 billion ($17 billion) tax hike was needed to reform social care funding and to help the National Health Service (NHS) clear the backlog caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. The move goes against a pledge Johnson personally made in the Conservative Party’s election manifesto in 2019, in which …
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