Andy Burnham has now confirmed reports that he will be scrapping the triple lock on pensions as it exists now.

He said he will honour Labour’s promise to keep it in place until the end of this parliament, but said from April 2030, it will be adjusted.

“The state pension will continue to rise every year, at least by prices or 2.5 percent, and it will hold its value relative to earnings over time, so that pensioners will always share in the rising prosperity of the nation,” he said.

“But this change will generate significant savings, which we will use to build up our national care service.”

As laid out on Sunday, Andy Burnham is unveiling his plans for a national care service to the Labour Party conference.

The prime minister said there is “only one real answer” to solve the country’s current care crisis.

“A person-centred, high-quality care service that starts in the home,” he said.

“A system in the best traditions of this party, where everyone contributes and everyone is covered, free at the point of use, and no care charges paid out of your basic state pension.”

He said: “This is the national care service we will build.

”The government will begin preparing for the national care service before introducing it in the next parliament.

“I won't pretend some of this won't be difficult,” he said. "I accept I may pay a political price. But someone has to go through the pain barrier and rip the plaster off.”

Andy Burnham is showing real emotion and anger as he talks about the care system in Britain, telling the care workers who looked after his late father: "You are not invisible to me".

The prime minister, who lost his father just weeks ago, received a standing ovation after telling the conference: "I watched closely the people who looked after my dad.

“Caring for other people's parents on poverty pay. But doing it with huge skill, humour and humanity.

“Holding a threadbare system somehow together, yet invisible to the political class of this country."

Speaking directly to care workers, he said: "You are not invisible to me. I see you, I thank you and I am sorry that my profession has let down yours for so long."

Andy Burnham has told Labour members that he has to be “honest about what the country can afford” after outlining a series of his cost of living reforms.

“I would love to go quicker, but I have to be honest about what the country can afford,” he said.

“I will stick to our fiscal rules to get borrowing and debt down. The approach I am outlining today is the responsible one.”

He added: “If we change the way we support people, we will get more people into work and the welfare bill down. Not through crude cuts. That should never be the Labour way.”

Andy Burnham receives his third standing ovation as he mentions his plan to slash VAT off energy bills this winter.

The move signals the level of enthusiasm in the room, with even the prime minister himself saying he "didn't expect a standing ovation" for that one, given it had already been announced weeks before.

Burnham says he will “get bills down”, noting that the UK pays the highest energy bills in Europe.

He announces Great British Grid, a branch of the government’s state-owned Great British Energy.

The prime minister says it will challenge the private sector to bring bills down.

He says his government will be "reforming a broken energy market so it better serves the public interest”, and that he has tasked Miatta Fahnbulleh, secretary of state for energy, to ensure that Britain has greater control over energy costs.

Andy Burnham is not playing around here. He is the first sitting Labour prime minister to lay out a socialist agenda since the 1970s.

His plan to allow councils to buy unused private properties and to force landlords to sell represents a dramatic change in the prevailing policies since Margaret Thatcher.

He is coming after privatised water and is making the case for renationalisation on a scale which has not truly been argued since the 1960s.

When Mr Burnham said that Britain had been going in the wrong direction for 40 years it turns out he really meant it and now he is laying out the immediate plans to reverse the Thatcher revolution.

Andy Burnham has taken aim at water companies, announcing to conference that a stronger Water Bill will see the repeal of a ban on public ownership of water companies.

He declared the water industry as a “symbol of what has gone wrong with Britain”, where “the shareholders never lose and the public never win”.

“I will not allow it to continue like this,” he said. “Today can confirm Angela Eagle will present a strengthened Water Bill to parliament.

The centrepiece of that bill will be this: the repeal of Margaret Thatcher's ideological ban on public ownership of water companies.”

The prime minister could barely be heard over the sound of the applause echoing throughout the hall, as the entire audience stood up from their seats.

Andy Burnham says Labour will introduce a bill before Christmas on “long overdue” leasehold reform.

Angela Rayner said earlier that the government will legislate for an independent regulator which will hold estate, letting, and property management agents to account.

The Housing secretary said she is “taking every action to empower people in their own homes”.

Mr Burnham said: “You have my word, the days of you being squeezed for every penny are coming to an end”.

Andy Burnham has been unveiling a series of reforms for council housing, and taking action in the private rental sector.

He said councils will be handed powers to take control of empty homes and bring them back into public ownership.

“Go to almost any town across Britain, and you will see plenty of empty homes,” he said.

“We will give councils the power to take control of them and bring them back into the public housing stock.”

He added: “We will help councils build again and make it affordable by building on unused public land. We will reform right to buy, not taking the right away from anyone in an existing home, but removing it from the new homes we build, so they are there for generations to come.”