Boris’s premiership is entering a dangerous new phase

The announcement of a tax increase for both workers and employers to fund more spending on health and social care is Boris Johnson’s biggest gamble since he won the 2019 general election. He is betting that, under the cover of Covid, he can get away with breaking his manifesto commitment not to raise personal taxes.

Voters can be unforgiving of politicians who break their promises. Johnson is aware of this danger. Earlier in the crisis, when the Treasury pushed to drop the pensions triple lock — which ensures that the state pension goes up by inflation, earnings or 2.5 per cent, whichever is highest — because the Covid crisis was making it unaffordable, Johnson resisted on the grounds it was a manifesto commitment. (The triple lock was suspended for a year on Tuesday as the Tories attempted to show that all the burden was not falling on the working-age population.)