Boris Johnson has taken questions from MPs in the first PMQs since the Parliament's summer break
He defended the new health and social care tax announced on Tuesday, saying it will help deal with the NHS backlog and 'catastrophic' care costs
But Labour's Sir Keir Starmer said the PM's plan imposed an unfair tax on working people
The SNP's Ian Blackford also branded the tax 'regressive'
MPs will vote at 19:00 BST on whether to introduce the tax, which will start as a 1.25% rise to National Insurance
Care providers have said the changes fail to deliver real reforms needed in the social care system
The Institute for Fiscal Studies says tax increases under this government will be the highest in 40 years
Image source, HoCWe'll pause our coverage from the Commons for now.
A reminder that you can follow this afternoon's debate here on our live page which is covering all the updates on the new health and social care changes.
Thanks for following along with us - do join us again next week.
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Iain Watson
Political correspondent
Sir Keir Starmer asked two specific questions of the prime minister, but he didn’t receive specific answers.
He queried whether the Conservative election promise – that no-one should have to sell their home
To pay for care – still stood.
And he inquired if the extra cash promised for the NHS in England would clear the backlog.
The prime minister sidestepped the questions and instead asked if Labour would oppose the new health and social care levy.
On the assumption Sir Keir would refuse to back it, the PM came equipped with a slogan: "vote Labour, wait longer."
Following a degree of agreement during the Covid crisis, traditional dividing lines were clearly being drawn at PMQs.
The prime minister declared that Labour believed in welfare rather than work.
While the Labour leader accused Boris Johnson of putting his "rich mates" ahead of "working people".
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Image source, UK ParliamentWith PMQs now over, political attentions turn to the debate this afternoon on the government's tax changes, where MPs will get to air their views more fully on the plans.
We expect the debate to start around 13:45 BST, and it should continue up until 19:00 when voting is due to start.
Minister for social care, Helen Whately, is on BBC 2's Politics Live.
She is asked if the £86,000 cap on social care costs will be applied retrospectively, to benefit those people who are already in the system and funding their own care.
She says the cap will not come in until October 2023.
"This is a big reform. I would love to turn it on tomorrow" she says but it "can't happen overnight".
The government is not ducking the challenges she argues but there are "complexities that take time to implement".
Vicki Young
Deputy Political Editor
There were loud cheers for the prime minister when he got to his feet for PMQs. The chamber once again packed, now that the social distancing measures have been lifted.
And Boris Johnson certainly didn’t get much stick about the new tax rise from his own side - probably because most MPs have plenty of constituents waiting for NHS treatment.
And of course workers won’t see the difference on payslips for several months.
Image source, HoCIn the final question of the session, Tory MP Peter Bone brings attention to bill he is presenting to the Commons on Friday.
The Asylum Seekers Return To Safe Country Bill aims to send people back to the last safe country they travelled through before seeking asylum in the UK.
Bone says the bill would "end the problem of people coming across the Channel", and asks Johnson to urge his colleagues to back it.
The PM doesn't go that far, but says the government's new Sovereign Borders Bill will ensure there is "a price to pay" for people coming to the country illegally.
Labour's Gareth Thomas goes back to the issue of social care and says working people who are graduates - such as newly qualified nurses - will face a marginal tax rate of almost 50% under the government's plans.
Aren't the less well-off paying more so "his privileged friends pay less", he asks.
The PM says this is wrong.
The highest-earning households will pay 40 times more than the poorest.
This measure funds pay for nurses, he argues, which is "why it is so astonishing" that Labour would vote against it, he says.
Labour's Peter Kyle gets into the popularity of Johnson's cabinet colleague during his question.
He says Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has a net approval rating amongst Tory supporters of minus 53, so asks: "Can the prime minister get to his feet, put his hand on his heart and promise the country, this House and his own supporters that is he right person for job and up to the job?"
Johnson says the education secretary had done a "heroic job" during the pandemic, dealing with "very difficult circumstances".
And he attacks Labour for not "having the guts to say schools are safe" to return to sooner.
Image source, HoCTory Lee Anderson is next up, telling the House there are "thousands and thousands of illegal immigrants landing on our shores every month", referring to the issue of small boats coming to the Kent coastline.
He asks the PM: "When are we going to take some direct action and send the boats straight back?"
Johnson says he shares the "indignation" of his colleague, and attacks the "cruel behaviour of gangsters and criminal masterminds" who are taking money from "desperate, frightened people" seeking safety.
But he adds that Home Secretary Priti Patel is "dealing with it in the best possible way" by working with her French counterparts to ensure those boats never leave French shores.
Image source, HoCLabour's Emma Lewell-Buck raises the issue of non-British nationals stranded in Afghanistan.
She says one of her constituents waited hours on a government helpline to talk to someone for advice only to hear the call handler laugh and say they were having to lie to people and give them false hope because "the whole thing is an entire scam".
Who in government is responsible for it she asks?
The PM says the whole country should be proud of what the UK has done to help people in Afghanistan and more than 15,000 people have already been welcomed to this country.
He says he is sorry to hear about the particular case she raises and vows to take it up.
Image source, HoCPlaid Cymru MP Ben Lake brings up the "widespread concerns" over the HGV drivers "crisis", which is leading to shortages on our shelves.
He says he has been contacted by drivers who believe the government's temporary measure of increasing the number of hours they can work will "fail to solve the problem", and instead working conditions needed to be improved.
Johnson says the government is working with the industry to get more people into the sector, including increasing test centre capacities and apprenticeships.
Image source, HoCLib Dem leader Ed Davey, who is also carer for his disabled son, says yesterday's social care plan forgot family carers who just want a fair deal.
Will the PM raise carers' allowance he says and change employment law so families can balance their responsibilities with work?
Why does the PM keep ignoring carers and taking them for granted, he adds.
The PM says everyone acknowledges the "massive debt" owed to carers and he wants to thank them for everything they do.
But the plan will bring changes across the board he argues and bring dignity and progression for care workers.
Conservative MP David Jones moves on to a familiar topic - Brexit.
He says the extension of grace periods to help stop trade issues across the Irish Sea is welcome.
But, he adds, "it does not amount to a permanent fix of Northern Ireland Protocol".
The PM agrees, and accuses the EU of not applying the protocol - agreed as part of the Brexit trade negotiations - in a way that protects the Good Friday Agreement "in all its aspects".
"We should sort it out," he adds.
As we expected PMQs, has so far been dominiated by the government's promise to overhaul of the way social care is funded in England.
So what's going to happen and how will it be paid for?
Image source, HoCSNP Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, is up now.
He says the PM's health and social care plans impose a regressive tax on millions of Scottish workers without consultation.
This is balancing the books on the backs of the poor and the young he argues.
The PM says people have told him they want more funding for the NHS.
Johnson says all the SNP can talk about is another referendum, and not the priorities of people in the country.
This is a return to austerity, says Blackford, with "no chance" of an economic recovery.
Vicki Young
Deputy Political Editor
Thrust of Starmer’s attack is that the wrong people are being asked to pay for this rise in spending and it won’t achieve its aim anyway.
But Johnson can’t disguise his delight that Labour are opposing his plans for the NHS.
Image source, HoCIn his final question, Starmer says the PM is out of touch with the reality of workers.
He tells the story of Rosie, a single mother working on the minimum wage in a nursing home.
"She will lose £87 a month becaue of the cut in universal credit," says Starmer, "and will now be hit with a National Insurance tax rise".
He accuses the Conservatives of underfunding the NHS over the past decade and cutting social care, while "always putting rich mates and donors before working people".
But Johnson calls it the "same old nonsense from Labour".
He says he has "every sympathy for Rosie", but the best way to help her and other families was through building a "strong and dynamic economy", which he insists his government is doing.
Image source, HoCStarmer says the PM can't even say his plan will clear the NHS backlog.
They are breaking their manifesto promises for this, he says.
2.5 million working families face a double whammy of a National Insurance rise and a universal credit cut Starmer says.
The PM says he is proud of what the government has done through the pandemic to help working families.
Ministers believe in higher wages and better skills, he says.