Boris Johnson risked accusations of hypocrisy after lashing out on social care after almost two years of failure to deliver his 'prepared plan'.
The Prime Minister claimed in July 2019, when he first entered Number 10, that he had a "prepared plan" to fix Britain's crumbling social care system.
Yet 22 months on, he has presented no evidence that such a plan exists.
Just nine words on the issue were included in the Queen's Speech - a vague promise to bring forward proposals before the end of the year.
At Prime Minister's Questions, Labour MP Justin Madders said it had been 664 days since the PM claimed he had a plan for social care - and every day families lose their life savings to pay care costs.
He told the Commons: “We can’t even get a straight answer as to whether the government have a plan to fix social care, never mind find out what it actually is.
“So just tell us Prime Minister - do you have a plan, yes or no?”
Mr Johnson replied: “Yes is the answer. But the Labour Party junked it…
“This is something that for decades politicians have failed to address. 1999, Labour failed to address the plan.
“They had 13 years in government… 13 unlucky years for this country. They didn’t do it.
“This government is going to tackle it. This government is going to finally address the issue of social care.
“And if they want to support it, with their customary doughty resolve, without wobble-wobbling from one week to the next in whatever their policy is, without changing like weather vanes which is what they normally do… then I’m all ears.”
MPs shouted "where is it", as Mr Johnson rolled out his bizarre excuse.
It came after the PM was confronted with comments by Jenny McGee - the nurse who helped save his life but has now quit the NHS over his 1% pay offer.
Labour MP Andy Slaughter told PMQs : “Surely even he must pause and think what can be learned from the mistakes of the past year?
“What Jenny calls the indecisiveness and mixed messages of his government.
“And will he think again about giving nurses more than an insulting 1% pay rise?”
Mr Johnson dodged talking about Jenny - who he previously praised by name and hosted in No10 - in his answer.
The PM replied: “I think the whole House acknowledges our collective debt to the nurses of the NHS and I certainly acknowledge my own huge personal debt.
“That’s why of all the professions in this country, in very very tough times, we have asked the public sector pay review board to look at an increase in pay for nurses.
“But in the meantime we have increased the starting salary for nurses by 12.8%. We have put in the bursary worth £5,000, we’ve restored that, as well as £3,000 for extra help.”
Mr Johnson neglected to mention it was the Tories who axed the nurses’ bursary in the first place, despite an outcry at the time.
He added: “I know what a tough year they’ve had. I know how hard it has been on the front line coping with this pandemic.
“We’ve done what I think is the most important thing of all - to recruit many more nurses. There are now about 11,000 more nurses in the NHS today than there were this time last year.”
