Darren Jones squirms in 'car crash' BBC interview as Naga Munchetty grills him on Budget

Following the recent announcement of the government's 2024 Budget, Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Treasury appeared on BBC Breakfast where he was questioned about the controversial changes to employer national insurance.

The politician stated: "Non public sector organisations will not be exempt, they will have to pay employer national insurance contributions in the same way that they normally do and therefore at the higher rate.

"But obviously it will depend on the size of those organisations, so we’ve designed the scheme specifically to support smaller businesses by lifting the allowance, the level at which you start to pay employer national insurance contributions from £5000 to £10,500."

Darren continued: " That means that around 50 percent of all businesses will either pay no mare than they were already paying or will actually pay less under this scheme compared to the last one."

This prompted presenter Naga Munchetty to ask: "So care homes which we know provide an essential service becasue the social care they're not exempt?

"So anyone who owns a care home now, which is picking up from the NHS, looking after people who need it they are not expempt, they should be preparing right now for these extra rises?"

Darren clarified: "They're not exempt because they're not a public sector organisations but we have increased through councils for social care by £600 million at this budget and recognised that we’ve got more work to do on how we reform and improve social care across the country."

"So there’s more money going in to social care in this budget to help them," he added.

This sparked an uproar on social media, as @TonyCalder17 remarked: "Bit of a car crash with Darren jones #bbcbreakfast."

@LiberalSaint85 commented: "Naga asking thoughtful questions of Darren Jones, not sure he has provided reassurance on lack of Social Care provision and support, yes, NHS funding much needed but where is the Social Care support and plan?"

A third added: “If Darren Jones had a car crash of an interview on #bbcbreakfast I can’t wait for his #lbc and #r4today interviews shortly."

@Jonw101961 fumed: “@BBCBreakfast & Darren Jones MP showing what a bunch of thick c**ts inhabit Rachel’s Accounts Dept Claims problems in discharging patients from hospitals is nothing to do with the lack of social care places! F**king imbeciles."

As @digitalsunshine praised: "Excellent interview between Naga Munchetty and Darren Jones just now direct, clear questioning. Honest, informative and insightful answers, rare to finish a political interview these days feeling better informed on a subject. It'll never catch on."

Speaking to Darren, Naga added: "What they say is that there's £600 million set aside in extra funding for adult and children's social care but care group say 'this isn't enough,' they're saying that it's just going to be wiped off instantly by the increased staff costs, because of what they're having to pay in employers national insurance cost contributions."

The MP responded: "Sure, and we'll have to through that with them, given that we ultimately pick up the bill of social care."