Andy Burnham has said he wants to set up a national care service for England, in his clearest words yet on how he aims to transform the country’s ‘broken’ social care system.
Speaking at the start of his first Labour Party conference as Prime Minister, Burnham told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg he would be the one to ‘grasp the nettle’ and fix it.
The new service would share the same principles as the NHS, he said, meaning it would be free at the point of use and paid for by everyone.
Asked if everyone would contribute through more tax to build the new system, the PM said: ‘It would be a system of that kind, so everyone contributes and everyone’s covered.
‘But not precisely, necessarily in the same way we currently pay for the NHS.’
The cost would be lower than the £18 billion a year that has previously been estimated, he said in his interview.
He said he would ‘set out the vision’ in his speech to the conference on Tuesday, and it would be up to Baroness Louise Casey to ‘help us with the how’ through her ongoing review of social care in England.
Once the plan was fully developed, it would then be put to the public at a general election, with the PM said he does not think the system can be reformed without trust.
There were early signs that Burnham may struggle to build a consensus on a solution across Parliament, as he has said he wants to do.
Asked about the plans on the same show, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘What I inferred from Andy Burnham’s interview just then is they do plan more tax rises.
‘Let me be categoric, the Conservative Party will not support more tax rises.’
Burnham also used the first day of conference in Liverpool to announce a new scheme to help first-time buyers secure a home.
Details of the ‘Your First Home’ equity loan scheme, which will involve a deposit of 2.5%, will be set out at John Healey’s first Budget as Chancellor next month.
Money for the scheme would be found by ‘reprioritising existing government budgets’, a Labour Party release said, without giving further details.
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