MPs are set to approve Boris Johnson’s plan for a £12bn health and social care levy after Conservative backbenchers rallied behind the prime minister. Despite reports at the weekend suggesting Johnson was facing a significant rebellion, Johnson got a warm reception from his MPs at PMQs and in the debate on the plan, which will continue until 7pm, only a handful of Tories have expressed reservations about the tax hike. Jake Berry, chair of the Northern Research Group, which represents Tory MPs from the north of England, said he would not be supporting the government because the proposals could be damaging to people in the north. (See 2.54pm). Steve Baker, another former minister, said he would not be voting with the government either because it was acting like a Labour administration. (See 4.29pm.) Dehenna Davison has also said she would not vote for the government motion because she was worried about the plans favouring the wealthy. This is from Eleni Courea from the Times.
Labour has said it is voting against the government’s plans because it says the new levy will not fix social care and will not be funded fairly. The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, made the case against the plans in a well-received Commons speech. (See 2.34pm.) She did not offer an alternative plan for raising money for social care. But she did hint that the party would like to raise more through taxes on wealth or property. In an interview with the PM programme, when asked about this, she said national insurance only taxed one form of income. She went on: There are other forms of income, through stocks and shares and properties. If you take, for example, somebody has got a portfolio of buy-to-let properties, under what the government announced yesterday and what we’re voting on this evening, they won’t pay a penny more in tax. And yet their tenants who go out and earn a wage will be paying more. That’s not right. The NHS could “swallow up” all the extra £12bn a year the controversial hike in national insurance will raise, leaving no money to improve social care, Boris Johnson has been warned. The viability of care homes is under threat from the government’s plan to allow more privately funded customers to buy care at cheaper rates currently only available to councils, operators have warned. Nearly 300,000 people are on local authority “waiting lists” for adult social care services in England because of funding pressures and delays in assessments from social workers, according to council care chiefs. Gavin Williamson has been branded the most ignorant and incapable education secretary in the UK’s history after he appeared to confuse Marcus Rashford with the England rugby player Maro Itoje, who is also black. Green campaigners have criticised the UK government for apparently removing references to the temperature goals of the Paris climate agreement from a prospective trade deal with Australia. The government has offered the Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, a two-year extension to her term in office. That is all from me for today. But our coronavirus coverage continues on our global live blog. It’s here.