'Where's the £350m a week for the NHS we were promised when we left the EU?'

8 September 2021, 08:20 | Updated: 8 September 2021, 10:25

Things got heated when Nick challenged the Health Secretary

By EJ Ward

This is the moment Nick Ferrari challenged Health Secretary Sajid Javid over a £350 million a week Brexit promise, and things got heated.

After the Prime Minister announced a manifesto busting plan to raise taxes by 1.25% to fund a boost to social care, LBC's Nick Ferrari challenged a Cabinet minister on the issue.

"A couple of years ago we were told that if we left the European Union we'd be saving £350 million a week that would go to the NHS, that's tens of billions of pounds we've saved.

"Where is it? Why do we need this additional funding now we've left the European Union?"

Read more: PM faces Commons vote over plan to hike taxes to highest levels since the war

Blaming the coronavirus pandemic, the Health Secretary said the additional money which would have gone to the EU, "it hasn't been enough to meet the challenges."

The conversation comes after the Prime Minister took a political gamble by scrapping a 2019 election promise and raising national insurance contributions to deal with the backlog in the NHS built up during the pandemic and to deliver long-overdue reform of the social care system in England.

Read more: 'Read my lips': Labour mocks Boris Johnson with LBC video of him promising no tax rise

Read more: PM announces 1.25% 'manifesto breaking' tax hike to fund social care reform

Boris Johnson defends his plan to help pay for health and social care

Pointing out that the Health Secretary was a former Chancellor, Nick said "£350 million a week since January last year is tens of billions of pounds, why isn't that bailing out the NHS?"

"Or, is it another lie from Boris Johnson just as the lie in his election manifesto, there is no £350 million a week, there are no promises, you cannot believe a word that comes out of a Conservative's lips?"

The Health Secretary's swift response was, "not at all," as he rebutted Nick's comments.

Pushing the government minister again, Nick asked "where is it?"

Again heaping blame on the coronavirus pandemic, the Health Secretary said the promised money, "and much, much more has gone into the health and care service."

Read more: Second Tory manifesto pledge broken as pensions triple lock scrapped

Read more: Analysis: Why Boris Johnson broke his National Insurance pledge - and how it affects you

Boris Johnson breaks manifesto pledge and increases National Insurance

The Government's plan will see the introduction of a new health and social care levy, based on a 1.25 percentage-point increase in national insurance (NI) contributions - breaking a Tory commitment not to raise NI.

Under the new levy, a typical basic-rate taxpayer earning £24,100 would pay £180 more a year, while a higher-rate taxpayer on £67,100 would pay £715.

As well as providing extra funding for the NHS to deal with the backlog built up during the Covid-19 pandemic, the new package of £36 billion over three years will also reform the way adult social care in England is funded.

A cap of £86,000 on lifetime care costs from October 2023 will protect people from the "catastrophic fear of losing everything", the Prime Minister said.