Reform UK’s private health insurance plan would cost £1.7bn, Streeting to say

Health secretary will describe plan to offer tax relief on private healthcare as ‘tax cut for the wealthiest’

Reform UK’s policy of tax relief on private health insurance could cost the country £1.7bn, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, is expected to say on Saturday.

Streeting will make the claim at a conference organised by the Fabian Society, a socialist thinktank aligned to the Labour party, and will describe the Reform proposal as a “tax cut for the wealthiest”.

Before the 2024 general election, Reform pledged to offer tax relief of 20% on all private healthcare policies if it won power. The party claimed in its manifesto that this would improve the general standard of care by reducing demands on the NHS.

Its leader, Nigel Farage, appeared to double down on this commitment at a press conference last summer, saying: “Perhaps if we gave people a bit of tax relief on paying for private health care, we might just relieve the pressure off the National Health Service.”