Andy Burnham has vowed a radical NHS-style National Care Service to fix ‘broken’ social care, admitting it could mean unpopular choices and higher taxes, as he says families are being wiped out
Andy Burnham has promised a drastic overhaul of England’s “broken” social care system – but taxpayers have been warned they may have to foot the bill. The Prime Minister admitted he is ready to take brutal, unpopular decisions to build a revolutionary NHS-style setup.
He revealed plans to fight the next general election on a radical blueprint for a National Care Service, which is free at the point of use and paid for by everyone.
Burnham pointed out that existing Labour manifesto pledges “make it hard” to deliver the massive shift during this Parliament after the party previously promised to shield working families from extra tax hits.
Burnham, who will lay out his full timeline during his big conference address on Tuesday (September 29), opened up about the deeply personal pain driving his crusade. His late father, Roy, died earlier this month aged 86 following a heartbreaking battle with Alzheimer’s.
The Prime Minister admitted it was agonising to watch his father face the exact same failing system that let down his grandmother decades earlier. The PM told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “When I was in Parliament first time round, in fact, when I was a new MP, my gran was going through the care system.
“And as health secretary I remember saying ‘we shouldn’t let what happened to my grandparents’ generation happen to my parents’ generation’ and it’s devastating actually to be here, and it has happened…Parliament just ignoring this issue because they consider it too difficult.
“Is there any wonder that politics is in such low esteem with the public when it can’t fix something as basic as the care that we give to each other? So it can’t carry on.
“Somebody needs to grasp the nettle. I will be the one to do that and I realise it might require me to spend some political capital.
“That it might make me unpopular with some, but that isn’t going to stop me.” Blasting England’s current adult care system, Burnham slammed it as “unfair as American healthcare”, warning that vulnerable families face financial ruin under existing rules.
“People are paying care charges now. They are spending tens of thousands of pounds from their savings, sometimes losing their homes,” he said.
“So to suggest there isn’t a cost to people at this moment in time, there’s a huge cost. Social care in England is as unfair as American healthcare, where the most vulnerable in society can lose everything, they can be wiped out, not just by the condition that they have, but wiped out financially.”
He also rubbished claims that an all-inclusive setup would swallow £18billion a year, flatly responding: “It’s not that high.” However, the opposition fired back immediately.
Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp warned the interview clearly pointed to incoming tax demands. “We do not support tax increases,” Philp said, arguing that the nation is already “taxed too highly”, which is actively “destroying jobs” and driving businesses to “go bankrupt”.
Philp insisted any needed cash should come straight from slashing government waste, “particularly in the welfare budget”, accusing Burnham of avoiding difficult choices.
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