Andy Burnham has said he is prepared to make unpopular choices, including raising taxes, to fund an NHS-style social care system in England.
The Prime Minister said nothing was off the table when it came to paying for reform, although he acknowledged that Labour’s current manifesto commitments make it difficult to introduce changes during this Parliament. He said he would put his proposals to the public at the next general election, which is expected in 2029.
Mr Burnham is expected to set out the broad direction of his plans in a Labour Party conference speech in Liverpool on Tuesday. Baroness Louise Casey is leading a review of social care, and Mr Burnham said he remained committed to cross-party talks aimed at reaching a consensus.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Burnham argued that people already face significant costs under England’s existing system. He said some people were spending tens of thousands of pounds from their savings and, in some cases, losing their homes to pay for care.
“People are paying care charges now,” he said. “They are spending tens of thousands of pounds from their savings, sometimes losing their homes.”
Mr Burnham compared social care in England to the US healthcare system, saying that both could leave vulnerable people facing severe financial consequences. He said the current arrangements meant people could be “wiped out financially” as well as suffering from the condition for which they needed care.
He described the idea that reform would create a new cost for families as mistaken, arguing instead that the cost already exists but is distributed unfairly.
“We have dementia taxes right now and people can lose everything they’ve worked for paying those taxes,” he said. “So the idea that there isn’t already a cost is just wrong. It’s just making that cost fairer and spreading it across the population.”
Asked whether a levy on estates could be used to fund reform, Mr Burnham said that option had not been ruled out. However, he stressed that this did not mean he was returning directly to the proposal he had supported in 2010, when he was health secretary. That earlier approach, which could have been funded through a levy on estates, was condemned by opponents as a “death tax”.
The Prime Minister said he was willing to accept the political consequences of pursuing reform, even if it proved unpopular with some voters.
“I am prepared to put myself in that position, recognising that it might be difficult or unpopular with some,” he said.
A care service that, like the NHS, was free at the point of use could cost up to £18.5 billion a year in 2035/36, according to an estimate by the Health Foundation think tank. Mr Burnham rejected that assessment, arguing that improved social care could reduce pressure on the NHS by preventing some people from requiring emergency treatment or hospital beds.
He also linked his commitment to reform to personal experience. Mr Burnham said his grandmother had gone through the care system when he was a new MP, and that, as health secretary, he had hoped to prevent the same experience from affecting his parents’ generation. His father died earlier this month, and Mr Burnham said it was devastating that the outcome he had feared had occurred.
He criticised successive politicians for failing to address the issue, describing their reluctance as political cowardice and saying that Parliament had ignored the problem because it was considered too difficult.
“Somebody needs to grasp the nettle,” he said. “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.”
The proposals drew criticism from opposition figures. Reform’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said Mr Burnham had refused to rule out what he called a “universal death tax”. He accused the Prime Minister of failing to reduce the benefits bill and instead targeting people’s homes.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp told the BBC that welfare spending should be cut to fund social care. He said Mr Burnham was not prepared to make difficult decisions on the welfare budget and warned that tax increases could cause further damage to the economy.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey welcomed the prospect of action but urged the Prime Minister to move beyond announcements. He said Mr Burnham should proceed with the cross-party talks that began in July and called for family carers to be placed at the heart of any solution.
The debate leaves the Government facing a difficult choice between the immediate political risks of funding reform and the continuing financial burden placed on people who need care and their families. Mr Burnham’s position is that the cost cannot be avoided, only shared differently.
