THE government must “rethink” the planned National Insurance rise, Labour and a senior Tory MP urged today as the Prime Minister pressed on with the tax hike despite the cost-of-living crisis.

Opposition to the rise has come from across Parliament, as MPs fear the impact that the rising cost of living could have on struggling households.

Writing in The Sunday Times, PM Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak insisted that it is right to follow through on the “progressive” policy, which they say is to tackle NHS backlogs and reform social care.

They said they are both “tax-cutting Conservatives,” but there is “no magic money tree.”

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss insisted that the government is “committed to cutting taxes” but said “significant” amounts of money spent coping with the pandemic must be repaid.

Under the plans, National Insurance is due to rise by 1.25 per cent for workers and employers in April.

Labour’s shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy warned that “it’s simply not possible for a lot of people to survive” if their tax burden grows.

She told the BBC’s Sunday Morning show: “You can’t possibly hit people with more taxes at the moment.”

Asked if Labour would repeal the government’s rise, she added: “If there was a Labour government today there would be no rise in National Insurance, people would not be facing the prospect of seeing their incomes squeezed even more.

“We’re going to be doing everything that we can over the next few weeks to try and appeal to Tory MPs’ consciences and try and persuade the Prime Minister to rethink.

“But if we can’t do that, what we’ll do is come forward with a much fairer taxation system that doesn’t hit working people the hardest.”

Speaking to Sky News, senior Tory MP Robert Halfon said the government should “go back to the drawing board” and look at different ways to find money that is needed for the health service.

The chairman of the Commons education committee told BBC Breakfast: “All I can do as a backbench MP is just to urge the government to think again.

“I hope that the government make cost of living the number one priority.”

The former minister reiterated calls for the government to look at different ways to raise the money that the rise is forecast to produce, such as a “windfall tax on big business.”