Amid reports the government plans to break its manifesto pledge not to raise national insurance contributions in order to plug the hole in social care funding, Small Business Minister Paul Scully appeared on Sky News this morning to try and dodge the claims:

“I’ve read about the speculation this morning, that’s not something I recognise, so we’ll see what happens in terms of…when we announce our details on social care.”

Pushed again by host Kay Burley to elaborate on the reports, Scully again said “it’s not something I recognise” and insisted that social care was an issue the government needed “to get to grips with“. “It’s not something I recognise” is usually code for “this is happening, we just don’t want to admit it yet”…