Boris Johnson outlines health and social care tax to pay for reforms

A new health and social care tax will be introduced across the UK to pay for reforms to the care sector and NHS funding in England, the PM has said.

Boris Johnson said it would raise £36bn for frontline services in the next three years and be the "biggest catch-up programme in the NHS' history".

He accepted the tax broke a manifesto pledge, but said the "global pandemic was in no one's manifesto".

However, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the plan was a "sticking plaster".

The tax will begin as a 1.25% rise in National Insurance from April 2022, and will be a separate tax on earned income from 2023.

Under the social care plans, no-one will have to pay more than £86,000 for care across their lifetime, while anyone with less than £20,000 of assets will get free care.

People with less than £100,000 of assets will see their care costs subsidised.