National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill Committee: New Clause 1

What happened: The House of Commons, sitting as a Committee of the whole House, voted on 17 December 2024 on New Clause 1 to the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill. The new clause, tabled by the Conservative opposition, sought to add protections or exemptions for certain businesses and organisations facing increased employer National Insurance contributions under the Bill. The motion was defeated by 353 votes to 195.

Why it matters: The underlying Bill raises the rate of secondary Class 1 National Insurance contributions, paid by employers, from 13.8% to 15%, while also lowering the threshold at which employers begin paying. New Clause 1 would have limited the scope of those increases by carving out protections for specified sectors. Debate centred heavily on the impact of the rises on GP surgeries, care homes, hospices, charities and nurseries, all of which are privately operated but substantially funded through public commissioning. Opponents of the clause argued that rejecting it was necessary to protect public finances and fund NHS investment; supporters argued the rises would directly undermine the very services the government said it wanted to protect.

The politics: The vote divided almost entirely along government-versus-opposition lines. All 347 Labour and Labour Co-operative MPs who voted backed the government, while Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, the Scottish National Party, the Democratic Unionist Party, Reform UK and Plaid Cymru all voted in favour of the new clause. There were no notable rebellions on the Labour benches. The vote sits within a broader contested narrative about the October 2024 Budget, with the opposition accusing the government of breaking pre-election pledges not to raise National Insurance, and the government arguing the rises were made necessary by inherited fiscal pressures.