Isle of Wight East MP, Joe Robertson, has told the Commons hospices will face a £30 million bill as a result of increases to employers’ national insurance contributions.

It comes after Paul Holmes, MP for Hamble Valley, issued a stark warning about the future of Mountbatten.

“Partnerships like GP practices, charities like hospices, businesses like pharmacies, dentistry and social care providers – none of those key healthcare services, which the NHS cannot exist without, share in that exemption to national insurance contribution rises,” said Isle of Wight East MP Joe Robertson.

“That means – and I quote the chief executive of Hospice UK – that charitable income to the tune of £30 million raised by hospices will be taken in national insurance contributions to fund the NHS, which does not properly fund hospices in the first place.”

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On Thursday, Hamble Valley MP Paul Holmes said Labour's increases to national insurance has put the "charitable sector in real danger".

He said "Mountbatten hospice, which serves my constituency and Hampshire more widely, receives 70 per cent of its income through charitable donations.

"It has told me and my honourable friend the Member for Isle of Wight East that its viability is under risk because of the national insurance contributions policy that this Government have brought forward.”

As previously reported, Mountbatten has spoken out about the risk of soaring bills - including a rise in minimum wage following the Budget.

Mountbatten CEO Nigel Hartley told the County Press it was "the beginning of the death of the modern hospice".