France has come up with a novel plan to help solve its expanding debt crisis - by planning a “boob job tax”, Belfast Telegraph said.

President Francois Hollande’s plans to raise £30m a year hinges upon a 19.6% VAT on all cosmetic surgery.

With an estimated 30,000 women having breast enlargements in France every year, the new socialist government’s tax would increase the price of a £5,000 op by a further £1,000 though surgery for medical reasons would be exempt from the VAT.

It is part of the president’s drive to raise £3.4bn to balance the books.