Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, also supported the rise, saying it would be “morally wrong” to let “our children pay for our healthcare and our adult social care”.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Javid argued that funding health and social care through borrowing would not just be “economically wrong” but also “morally wrong”.

He said: “The choice for us as a country is we either put that money in ourselves now, and if we don’t do it ourselves we will have to borrow it. And that is mortgaging the future of our children and our grandchildren.

“Why should our children pay for our healthcare and our adult social care? They are going to have enough challenges as they grow older. I think that will be the wrong approach.”

Labour said the Government had wasted billions during the pandemic, with large sums spent on PPE that was not fit for purpose.

Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “The Government says, ‘well, we need this money, we have got to put it towards the health service and then social care’, but that leaves out… that over £11 billion was either wasted or lost in fraud in the last two years.

“So I’m afraid the sad reality is that a lot of the money that is gathered through this tax increase today in the end is going to be filling a black hole left by the incompetence of the Government on finance.”