Nick Ferrari confronted health secretary Sajid Javid over the £350 million a week Brexit promise on a heated LBC show this morning.
Following an announcement by the prime minister to raise taxes to fund a boost to social care, the presenter challenged Javid over why the money is needed when we’re making such lucrative savings from the contributions we have ceased paying to the European Union.
“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?”
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 PM 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.
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?”
Watch the clip in full below:
Related: ‘More deaths, longer lockdowns and lower wages’: The north of England’s pandemic
