Sajid Javid has refused to confirm how much money will be channelled into social care after the initial three-year period of prioritising the NHS backlog.
The new health and social care levy will raise an estimated ￡12bn per year, but the vast majority is being directed to help the NHS "catch up" following the pandemic, with just ￡5.4bn being deployed to social care over the first three years.
Asked for a commitment that after this point social care would be prioritised, the Health Secretary demurred, saying only that "more and more" would shift to social care.
While admitting that he could not guarantee NHS waiting lists would be cleared, he insisted the plan had factored this in.
He told Times Radio: "Social care, because of the model we are introducing with this lifetime cap... the cap starts to bite only after a few years.
"From that perspective this is the ideal way to deal with it because we have this huge amount of new funding that will help tacking waiting list over next few years and... a plan to put adult social care on a much more sustainable long term footing."
It comes amid a warning that the ￡5.4bn allocated for social care will not be sufficient to deal with the crisis.
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The ￡20 Universal Credit uplift was never intended as "something that was possible and sustainable to keep forever", Sajid Javid has said.
The Health Secretary and former chancellor told ITV's Good Morning Britain that "what is very different now" compared with the start of the pandemic is strong economic growth and the "record number of vacancies for jobs".
But challenged over the fact that many Universal Credit claimants are in work, Mr Javid stressed "the strength of the jobs market is important to anyone". Asked if he meant for people to get another job, he said "that's your words, not mine".
The uplift "has to end", he added.
A snap vote on the new health and social care levy announced just yesterday will take place at around 7pm tonight, following a lengthy debate on the matter.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats have already said they will oppose any increase to National Insurance, arguing that it unfairly lays the burden on younger and less well-off individuals.
The anticipated Tory rebellion appears to have dwindled in recent days, with just three Cabinet ministers said to have expressed reservations, while the whips get to work, telling backbenchers it will be viewed as a confidence vote on Mr Johnson’s administration. The prospect of a reshuffle as early as tomorrow is thought to have swayed others.
But how do you think MPs should vote today? Have your say in the poll below.
The pandemic has meant "some of the commitments" made on taxation must change, Sajid Javid has said.
Asked if he can guarantee there will be no more tax rises, the Health Secretary dodged the question.
He told Good Morning Britain: "What I can guarantee is that we will continue to be responsible and a serious Government that will confront the challenges the country faces."
The minister stressed that "no-one expected" a global pandemic, and the Government had been right to respond as it did.
"And if that means that some of the promises we'd set out in the past, some of the commitments that we made, have to change, I think people understand that," Mr Javid added.
"I think what people want is a Government that's going to be frank and straight with them about the challenges we face, and confront those challenges."
"Nothing" can stop migrants crossing the Channel and it is "impossible" for French police to patrol the whole shoreline, a French politician has claimed.
Pierre-Henri Dumont, who represents Calais in the French National Assembly, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the warmer weather was prompting a rise in the crossings but there are "numerous causes" to address about why they are made in the first place.
"That's the key point - the causes we need to address are numerous," he said.
He added: "Nothing can stop them. The fact is, we've got 300 to 400 kilometres of shore to monitor every day and every night and it's quite impossible to have police officers every 100 metres because of the length of the shore."
Migrants are more likely to speak English and it is easier for them to find work in the UK despite their illegal status, he noted.
The Government will not need to raise taxes further to deal with the social care crisis, Sajid Javid has said, despite concerns that the bulk of funds will be deployed in the NHS.
MPs will vote on Boris Johnson's ￡12bn a year health and social care levy today, just a day after the plan was unveiled.
Asked if the sum collected from rising National Insurance contributions will raise enough money to fix the current problems in the social care system, the Health Secretary said: "No, I think this is enough money."
Insisting the tax rise was a "very Conservative thing to do", Mr Javid added: "I don't like raising taxes, I want taxes to be as low as they possibly can be. But if we want the NHS to be there always doing its job, we have got to fund that."
It comes amid a warning that the ￡5.4bn allocated for social care will not be sufficient to deal with the crisis.
Mike Padgham, chairman of the Independent Care Group, told ITV's Good Morning Britain he was "disappointed that the vast majority of the money" was going to the NHS first, "leaving social care with very little."
Sir Andrew Dilnot, author of the landmark report on the sector, told Times Radio: "The Government may find it needs to raise more money or borrow more in three or four years"
Boris Johnson has confirmed plans for a 1.25 percentage points increase to National Insurance that will result in workers paying hundreds or even thousands more in taxes each year and force pensioners to pay for the first time, in a ￡10 billion earnings raid to fund the NHS.
Use our tool, below, to work out how much more tax you'll pay.
The Health Secretary has failed to commit to a target for reducing NHS waiting lists, saying it is impossible to know how many will "come back" for treatment after the pandemic.
Sajid Javid told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I can absolutely guarantee that, because of this package, we will be able to tackle that waiting list and it will be a lot, lot lower than otherwise."
But he added: "I can't tell you exactly how much lower it will be because, for example, I don't know how many of those seven million are going to come back - that's what the NHS refers to as the bounceback - what's the assumption?
"The NHS has never been through anything like this before. We don't know that. We have to make an assumption.
"What I can say though is I want as many of those people to come back as they can, I want them to know that the NHS is there, it's open for them. I don't want anyone to suffer out there."
The Government's new tax package signals that "low tax Conservatism is dead", a former director of policy for the Labour Party said.
Torsten Bell, the chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: "We've learned that low tax Conservatism is dead. This is the biggest set of tax rises since the 1970s if you take this together with the tax rises in the March Budget."
But the new package also shows that "fiscal Conservatism in the Treasury is alive and well and it's calling a lot more of the shots" because the vast majority would be spent on "other health priorities" than social care.
Raising taxes was "quite a big change for this Government, who have so far used borrowing to cope with the cost of the pandemic", Mr Bell said.
Sajid Javid has said the Government should be judged on three points when voters return to the polls next.
The Health Secretary told Radio 4's Today programme: "We should be judged for our commitment to fiscal responsibility... we should be how we care and look after the NHS and meet its needs.
"And also how we have become the first Government in a generation to give older people, as they approach retirement, the dignity they deserve."
Sajid Javid has insisted the Conservatives remain "the party of low taxation", rejecting the "false choice" between this and supporting the NHS.
"Even with this change in the levy... the total tax burden as a proportion of our GDP is around 35.5 per cent," the Health Secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "That is still lower than France, Italy and Germany. We are still a low-tax country after this change and we will always remain a low-tax country.
"But we are also a responsible, Conservative Government that believes passionately in the NHS."
It is the "duty of a civil society" to help look after the many adults with severe disabilities who rely on social care, Sajid Javid has said.
The Health Secretary stressed that everyone in the country would benefit from the health and social care levy, saying "all of us - regardless of our age - rely on the health service".
But he noted that more than 50 per cent of the social care spending was on working age adults "because people born with severe disabilities are living a lot longer".
Mr Javid added: "That is something we should all celebrate as a society, and it's the duty of a civil society to look after those people."
The health and social care levy will help "fixes many of those long-term problems that no government has confronted", Sajid Javid has insisted.
The extra ￡5.4bn over the next three years is "on top of the already ￡20bn a year" going into the sector, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
The Health Secretary said: "That money going to the local authorities. the billion or so a year, that will help get to the fairer cost of care. That us to stop this cross-subsidisation of the system, where you have local authorities in effect being subsidies by private payers. That isn't fair."
A firebreak in October will not be required because of the "wall of defence" provided by the vaccine programme, Sajid Javid has said.
He told Sky News: "I don't think that's something we need to consider. I haven't even thought about that as an option at this point."
He said no decisions are "risk-free" but insisted the "best defence" against another wave of the virus is the vaccine programme.
He added: "Vaccines are working. Yes, there are still infections, of course there still are. That's true around the world. But the number of people going into hospital, and certainly those dying, is mercifully low, and that's because of the vaccines."
The UK's chief medical officers are expected to rule whether there should be a mass rollout of a Covid-19 vaccine to 12 to 15-year-olds in "the next few days", Sajid Javid has said.
The Health Secretary told Sky News he would not pre-empt the decision because he wanted to "give them breathing space" to come to their own judgment.
"But I would expect to hear from them in the next few days," he added.
Asked how he would feel about children of that age group of his own having jabs, he said: "I don't think it's appropriate for me to pass a judgment because I'm waiting for an independent view."
Consent will be sought from parents, but if a child is believed to be competent enough to make the decision they "will prevail" if there is a difference of opinion between the two.
The social care levy is a "very Conservative thing to do", Sajid Javid has said.
Asked if he was in the right party, the Health Secretary told Sky News "yes, I am sure of that" and stressed that raising taxes was "responsible" in the current circumstances.
He added: "I don't like raising taxes, I want taxes to be as low as they possibly can be. But if we want the NHS to be there always doing its job we have got to fund that."
But he was still unable to confirm how much funding social care would get beyond the ￡5.4bn in the first three years, which is likely to concern some - as former deputy prime minister Damian Green did yesterday.
The Government has not "got to grips with how much difficulty the social care sector is in", the chairman of the Independent Care Group has said.
Mike Padgham told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "I'm pleased this Government is actually tackling it, that's good.
"But it's just the start of the discussion. We have to keep lobbying. We have to make sure social care is at the top of the list, because it is very much underfunded.
"And obviously, if the social care sector is not strong, it affects the NHS. So that's the problem with this plan I feel. Yes, the NHS deserves more money, but unless social care is there to help support the NHS ... then it doesn't go anywhere.
"I'm not sure the Government has really got to grips with how much difficulty the social care sector is in."
The chairman of the Independent Care Group has questioned whether the funding from the health and social care levy will "every actually come to social care".
Mike Padgham told Good Morning Britain: "I'm disappointed that the vast majority of the money that's been allocated seems to be going to the NHS first, leaving social care with very little.
"The social care sector is on its knees at the minute. Yes, I do welcome the extra money. But local authorities do need more support and much of the money, I'm worried in the future, will it ever actually come to social care? Because we're talking three years down the road and we might have an election at that time, so it's very concerning."
Boris Johnson will attempt to convince Conservative MPs to back his plan to fix social care at a snap Commons vote called just one day after the manifesto-busting new policy was announced.
The Prime Minister took a political gamble on Tuesday as he scrapped an election promise by raising national insurance contributions to deal with the backlog in the NHS built up during Covid and to deliver long-overdue reform of the social care system in England.
Tory opposition to the plans when first leaked was fierce, but any backbench rebellion appeared to have subsided by Tuesday as MPs provided little challenge to the PM as he presented his proposals to the Commons.
But the plan - along with another manifesto-breaking announcement to temporarily suspend the "triple lock" on pensions - moves Mr Johnson away from his traditional position of low-tax Conservatism.
MPs will vote on Boris Johnson's health and social care levy today, just a day after the plan was unveiled.
Labour might be accusing the Government of trying to "bounce" backbenchers into supporting the tax rise - but it seems to be working, with the threatened rebellion expected to dwindle to nothing.
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