Wycombe MP Steve Baker refused to support Boris Johnson’s plan to bring in £12 billion extra a year for the NHS and adult social care through a rise in national insurance, saying the Conservative Party needs to “rediscover what it stands for”.

Under the plans announced by the Prime Minister the NHS will get the bulk of the £36 billion raised in the first three years, with £5.4 billion for social care in England.

Prime Minister Mr Johnson saw off a Tory rebellion to secure MPs’ backing for the controversial tax hike, with the Commons voting by 319 to 248 in favour of the 1.25 percentage point increase in national insurance contributions despite deep unhappiness among many Conservative MPs.

Wycombe MP Steve Baker indicated he would deliberately abstain from the vote. Meanwhile, Beaconsfield MP Joy Morrissey, Aylesbury MP Rob Butler and Buckingham MP Greg Smith – all Tories - voted to support the plan.

Chesham and Amersham MP Sarah Green voted against the increase.

Mr Baker announced during a debate he was “not going to be able to vote with” the Government.

He said: “I believe that this is just the beginning of a generational crisis of our inability to fund the promises that have been made progressively for 100 years since the 1911 National Insurance Act.”

He warned “we are in a dreadful position”, adding: “Now the Conservative Party, at some stage in our lifetimes, is going to have to rediscover what it stands for because I have to say at the moment we keep doing things we hate, because we feel we must.”

He added: “Tonight colleagues with a good heart are going say well I just must because we all know we can’t let NHS waiting lists get to where they’re going to be going as a result of the pandemic…

“We are going to have to do things differently, we’re going to have to rediscover our confidence as free-market Conservatives, we’re going to have to rediscover the radical reforming zeal of the 2010 Parliament and the ‘Big Society’ and show people that we can secure a bright and prosperous and free future which provides for their needs in old age, but do it without every time there’s a squeeze on the public finances coming back for higher taxes, because down that road there is ruin.

“We all know that eventually as a socialist you run out of other people’s money and I have to say I’m sorry ministers I’m not going to be able to vote with you tonight because some of us are going to have to be seen to be standing for another path.”

Care minister Helen Whately said the government will be “keeping a really close eye” on making sure that NHS money is spent “carefully and appropriately”.