Now Boris accuses Sunak of ‘a failure of political judgment’

BORIS JOHNSON believes that Chancellor Rishi Sunak was guilty of ‘a failure of political judgment’ in writing a letter to him complaining about the UK’s chaotic and restrictive travel rules, The Mail on Sunday has learned.

The Prime Minister made his remarks to MP allies after a note written by the Chancellor a month ago found its way into the public domain last weekend – shortly before the infamous ‘traffic light’ rules were reviewed on Thursday. In his letter, Mr Sunak said that the UK was ‘out of step’ with the rest of the world.

Mr Johnson told his allies that by writing the letter, which was copied to Grant Shapps’s Transport Department, it was ‘bound’ to be leaked – and joked that he could move Mr Sunak to Health, where former Chancellor Sajid Javid became the Secretary of State six weeks ago.

The Prime Minister said he was particularly annoyed because he actually agreed with the Chancellor that the rules

‘He joked that Rishi could do a good job at Health instead’

should be relaxed to allow people to enjoy their holidays.

One of the allies said: ‘The Prime Minister shared Rishi’s views. It didn’t need to be written. It was designed to be leaked. Boris regarded it as a failure of political judgment. He hadn’t even received the letter – and said that maybe Rishi “could do a very good job” at Health instead of the Treasury.’

The revelation comes amid growing t ensions between No 10 and No 11, as Mr Johnson finalises a set of expensive new policies to be announced in September. Mr Johnson is close to agreeing the details of a new £10 billion-a-year ‘health tax’ to tackle the backlog in NHS appointments caused by the pandemic and start to reform the care system for the elderly.

Sources say Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak are ‘ironing out a few wrinkles’ to finalise the plan, which will see National Insurance (NI) rise by at least one per cent f or workers and employers. Money raised will be added to Mr Javid’s Health Department budget.

Talks are continuing about how funds will be allocated between NHS needs and social care reform, and what the cap on care costs should be.

The likely compromise is that people will be expected to pay the first £50,000 towards their care, with the State picking up the rest. However, Mr Sunak has stressed to No 10 that people living in areas where property prices are low will find it onerous to raise that sum.

Mr Johnson will be working on his plans for the autumn while taking a two-week break in the UK. He will also be drawing up environmental policies ahead of hosting the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12 and announcing a winter plan on Covid-proofing the economy and the NHS.

A fresh crackdown on crime will also be announced, including measures to break ‘county lines’ drugs gangs and an explosion in cocaine use among the middle classes. Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak will thrash out reforms to the ‘triple lock’ pension guarantee as the Government faces paying an extra £4 billion, and the Chancellor will conduct a spending review.

The Prime Minister hoped to make some announcements before Parliament broke for the summer recess, but was stymied by having to self-isolate after coming into contact with Mr Javid after he tested positive for Covid.

A source said: ‘September is going to be a packed month as nor mal s e r vi c e hopeful l y resumes. Boris will hit the ground running when he comes back from holiday.’

The plan to raise NI has run into opposition from the Cabinet and sections of the Tory backbenches, who say it breaks a manifesto pledge on tax rates. But Mr Johnson also promised to reform a system that forces older people to sell their homes to pay for care.

Tensions between No 10 and the Chancellor over social care bubbled over after the Prime Minister told Mr Javid, when he was appointing him in the wake of Matt Hancock’s resignation as Health Secretary, that a condition of him winning the job was to join forces to push Mr Sunak to find the money to tackle the NHS backlog and social care reform.

A total of 5.3 million people are waiting for routine operations and procedures on the NHS in England, and Mr Javid has warned that the figure could reach 13 million.

After the backlog has been dealt with, the money raised by increasing NI would be used to reform the social care system.

After Mr Johnson told Mr Sunak that he was broadly prepared to accept the plan drawn up ten years ago by Sir Andrew Dilnot – which limited to about £50,000 the amount that families have to pay towards care – Mr Sunak said there was not enough money to cover it and the only way to fund the plan would be a new tax.

Some Tory backbenchers are backing an alternative plan that limits personal contribution towards care costs to 30 per cent of the value of a person’s home, which would keep the net cost to the taxpayer at about £2 billion a year.