MP CAROLINE Lucas yesterday blasted Boris Johnson for leaving millions of self-employed people without support since March.

But the Prime Minister rejected her claims, saying the government had pledged £13.5 billion to help those who were left without work when the UK was plunged into lockdown.

In March, days after the coronavirus restrictions were introduced, Mr Johnson said the government would put its “arms around every single worker” to protect jobs and livelihoods.

He repeated the phrase yesterday.

But Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas asked the Tory leader to go back on his turn of phrase.

During Prime Minister’s questions, she said: “Will he (Mr Johnson) stop saying that he had put his arms around the self-employed?

“Because, more than three million of them have had no support since March.”

She referred to the three million people who were reportedly excluded from the government’s pandemic financial support schemes.

But Mr Johnson rejected this claim.

He said: “The self-employed, which is a group that I think we all care about very much, have received so far £13.5 billion of support and we’ll continue to look after them as well.

“Where there is more we can do, we will obviously look at it.”

Ms Lucas later took to Twitter to express her anger at his words, describing his rejection of the exclusion of three million people from government support as “hypocrisy and deception”.

Addressing those affected by the shortcomings, she said: “We won’t give up – there are huge numbers on your side and we’ll continue to fight for justice for the self-employed.”

Ms Lucas, pictured, has previously campaigned in support of the three million excluded self-employed people in London alongside TV money saving expert Martin Lewis.