Brexit dividend ‘won’t be anything like enough’ amount needed to fund £20bn NHS boost, Jeremy Hunt admits

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has admitted the so-called Brexit dividend will not be “anything like enough” to fund the £20bn boost to the NHS.

The increase in NHS England spending will be the equivalent of a 3.4 per cent increase per year in real terms, below the 3.7 per cent historical annual rate of growth.

Speaking ahead of today’s announcement Prime Minister Theresa May told The Marr Show yesterday: “That will be [funded] through the ‘Brexit dividend’ […] and we as a country will be contributing a bit more.”

The UK will not learn exactly how the cash – the equivalent of an extra “£600m more a week” on a nominal basis – will be raised until the Autumn Budget later this year.

However speaking to the Today programme this morning, Hunt admitted the Brexit dividend “alone won’t be anything like enough.”

“We are clear there will be an increased burden of taxation,” he said, adding that money could also come from economic growth.