An unsteady two-fluid model of blood flow through a tapered arterial stenosis with variable viscosity in the presence of variable magnetic field has been analysed in the present paper. In this article, blood in the core region is assumed to obey the law of Jeffrey fluid and plasma in the peripheral layer is assumed to be Newtonian. The values for velocity, wall shear stress, flow rate and flow resistance are numerically computed by employing finite-difference method in solving the governing equations. A comparison study between the velocity profiles obtained by the present study and the experimental data represented graphically shows that that the rheology of blood obeys the law of Jeffrey fluid rather than that of Newtonian fluid. The effects of parameters such as taper angle, radially variable viscosity, hematocrit, Jeffrey parameter, magnetic field and plasma layer thickness on physiologically important parameters such as wall shear stress distribution and flow resistance have been investigated. The results in the case of radially variable magnetic field and constant magnetic field are compared to observe the effect of magnetic field in driving the blood flow. It is observed that increase in hematocrit increases the wall shear stress. The values of wall shear stress and flow resistance are obtained at various time instances and compared. It is pertinent to note that the magnitudes of flow resistance are higher in the case of converging tapered than non-tapered and diverging tapered artery.