Katy Balls Katy Balls

Can Johnson win round his social care critics?

(Photo by Jessica Taylor/UK Parliament)

Is Boris Johnson’s social care plan about to sail through the House of Commons? Today the Prime Minister will unveil the details of the package he is proposing. After putting his plans to the cabinet, it will be set out in the Commons before a 5 p.m. press conference where Johnson will appear alongside Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid. There are rumours afoot that No. 10 then may opt for a vote in the Commons this week at short notice — in a bid to push the plans through before the rebels have time to get organised.

However, slightly raining on Johnson’s parade is the fact that cabinet ministers have so far been kept out of the loop. Tory MPs are on the rampage and even if polling is fairly supportive on the plan, no one can quite predict what effect so clearly breaking a manifesto pledge at the next election. As for what Johnson will announce, he is expected to sell it as the ‘health and social care levy’ — with the money initially going to clearing the backlog and then later being used to fund social care. 

The worry in the Treasury is that the money will never reach social care — instead it will all be swallowed up by the NHS

The worry in the Treasury is that the money will never reach social care — instead it will all be swallowed up by the NHS. In a bid to ease such concerns, the plan is to ‘legally ringfence’ the rise — however, laws can clearly be overturned. There are also murmurs that Johnson could this week announce the end of the pensions triple lock while he’s at it — as a way of showing that this isn’t just about the working-age population taking a hit. 

Will the plans get through his cabinet and party? In 10 Downing Street, cabinet approval is viewed as the easier of the two.

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