‘Use Tory tax cut cash to pay carers a decent wage’, says Labour’s Andy Burnham

Cash lavished on Tory tax cuts for the rich should have been used to boost carers’ pay, Andy Burnham fumed tonight.

Addressing a fringe event hosted by the Future Social Care Coalition, the Greater Manchester Metro Mayor lashed out at last week’s Budget which axed the bankers’ bonuses cap and scrapped the 45p top rate of tax.

The former Health Secretary told delegates: “That thing we saw on Friday was obscene, immoral, awful – just throwing money at the richest people in the country.

“Can you imagine what that must have felt like if you were a domiciliary care worker on your round of visits on Friday, hearing that on the news?

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“Or working in a residential care home and you just heard that the wealthiest people in the country were just going to get money thrown at them?

“How must that have felt?”

Calling on Labour to “reject the whole thing” of last week’s mini-Budget, he called for £7billion of the tax cuts to be diverted to lifting carers’ pay.

“Can anyone in this room tell me that it would not be a better use of that £7bn to give care workers in England an immediate and significant rise in their pay, so that they can face the cost-of-living crisis?” he said.

Mr Burnham demanded an end to the “scandal” of pay levels in the sector, with workers often receiving the legal minimum of just £9.50 an hour.

“People who have signed up to do one of the most noble things you can possibly do, looking after other people’s relatives – it’s a scandal that that’s rewarded with poverty pay,” he said.

“Until we fix that we won’t have a social care system worthy of the name, it won’t truly be a system that supports care and those who provide care.”

Unison general secretary Christina McAnea told the fringe – hosted by Mirror editor Alison Phillips – pay rises would help recruit and retain staff – tackling the crisis of 160,000 job vacancies.

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the “workforce crisis” was “driven by poverty rates of pay, terrible exploitation of terms and conditions that most people would not tolerate and not wish to see for themselves and their own families”.

He said the situation was “so bad that people who joined to work in social care because they believe in what it can do, they’re committed to their jobs, committed to helping and serving people, are leaving that vital public service to go and work for the likes of Amazon”.

He added: “How is it that social care is in such a state that working for Amazon is more attractive than working in social care?”

Mr Streeting has pledged to recruit care workers by guaranteeing fair pay, workers’ rights and appropriate training.

Labour has vowed to build a so-called National Care Service which would see private providers required to meet what it called “decent standards, including delivering quality care for residents and running care homes in a financially sustainable way”.

The Mirror is campaigning for Fair Care for All.