The parliamentary vote on social care passed pretty comfortably for the prime minister, but a nasty war over

In the Daily Telegraph, Allister Heath, editor of the Sunday title, attacked the PM’s reputation with a frenzy. “Shame on Boris Johnson, and shame on the Conservative party. They have disgraced themselves, lied to their voters, repudiated their principles and treated millions of their supporters with utter contempt.” The headline said: “Boris’s shameful Tory betrayal guarantees the total victory of socialism in Britain”.

Fraser Nelson, editor of rightwing journal the Spectator, had no kinder words for the PM.

Nelson claimed that Johnson’s cabinet has presided over the “inversion of the welfare state”. “The traditional logic of the welfare state – that those with power and money help those with less of it – would be turned on its head … Some will help families who can in no sense be described as rich. But after the NHS waiting list has begun to ease, the tax becomes a care home insurance scheme, and the refusal to impose any meanstesting has big implications.”

The Spectator’s economics editor, Kate Andrews, alleged Johnson had “reneged on manifesto promises left and right” and was now revelling in the growth of the “big state”.

She feared that the NHS hole will drain all the new cash. “Unless decades of politicalisation and idolisation of the health service are undone overnight, and it becomes politically possible to critique the health service, this seems like a near-impossible situation. The only guarantee, then, is a new, higher tax burden.”

Another pair of missiles came from the Telegraph. Robert Taylor claimed Johnson was “addicted to big government”, while Camilla Tominey, the paper’s associate editor, said Johnson lacked shame “as he sounded the death knell for Conservatism”. She argued: “Mr Johnson’s suggestion that the public feels in their bones the need to spend more on the NHS appeared to miss the point that most would rather it was the government’s money than more of their own hardearned cash.” The Daily Mail has been torn between celebrating the cap on individual social care spending and scepticism about the ultimate effectiveness of such a big impact on taxpayers. Last Tuesday, under the headline “The NHS delusion”, Christopher Snowdon asked: “Will we see the results of this huge cash injection? I have my doubts. The backlogs caused by Covid-19 are a convenient excuse for soaring waiting lists, which now stand at 5.5m and are projected to rise to an eyewatering 13m.” Observer VANESSA THORPE IS THE OBSERVER’S MEDIA CORRESPONDENT