Andy Burnham vows to use his ‘political capital’ to fix social care system | Social care

Andy Burnham has vowed to use “the political capital I have” to finally fix England’s collapsing social care system, saying without swift action the NHS could effectively collapse.

In her first full interview since becoming prime minister last week, Burnham said she could not put a timetable on the arrival of a new system for social care but said it would take time to create.

Burnham has repeatedly said she hopes to properly address a political issue that has been repeatedly neglected by governments, highlighting her personal experience with her father, who has Alzheimer’s disease and requires care.

Asked whether he would create a completely new system for social care before the next election, the prime minister told the BBC he would move as quickly as he could on this “reform”. He added that a completely new system would take time.

“I think there are big changes you can make before the next election. This is costing the NHS billions of pounds and we’ll never get the NHS back to good waiting time standards until we fix social care,” he said.

Asked if he had the political will to make this happen, Burnham said he had previously promised to resolve the issue and said: “I’m not going to change going into this.”

He said: “I will not take positions other than those I have presented to you in interviews for a long time. Whatever political capital I have, I will set my sights on fixing broken social care and I would not want to leave my post without bringing about the significant change that you have described, which is the new social care system.”

“I can’t put a timetable on here at the moment. If we don’t do this the NHS will collapse under the weight of looking after people who don’t actually need to be part of the NHS system.”

Burnham also said Britain needed to “get really serious as a country” about reducing the amount spent on social security and other benefits. But he added that he did not want to demonize people who claim social security.

Asked if, in his opinion, there were people claiming benefits who did not need help, he said: “I wouldn’t want to blame those people directly. There are people in the benefits system, young people in their 20s, who are quite seriously let down because the support wasn’t there when it should have been.”

“So I don’t blame them. I think the support isn’t there like it should be.”

Burnham also promised to overhaul the wider benefits system, launched under Keir Starmer, which includes a review of payments for people with disabilities or illnesses, as well as a study on how to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training.

Asked how he hopes to balance any changes, Burnham said: “It’s about changing the nature of support and making some of it dependent on people taking the opportunities that are presented to them.

“So you can increase the conditions to benefit from social benefits. I think it is a good thing that the government guarantees opportunities for young people.

“And I think we need to continue that approach and provide mental health support where it’s needed, for example, to support people with an opportunity in business. But let me say one more thing in terms of what you’re getting at, which is the welfare bill. I think we have to be really serious about reducing welfare as a country.”

In a letter to Burnham on Sunday, Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch reiterated an existing offer that her party would work with the government on transforming social care; but this offer was made only on the basis of conditions that the government could not realistically accept.

These include ensuring the scheme is “fair” to savers, ruling out many approaches where people contribute to their own care, and instead also ruling out any tax increases or borrowing for the scheme.

In the interview, Burnham also vowed to stick to existing fiscal rules and take a “cautious approach” to public finances, saying Labor must comply with its 2024 election manifesto.

Burnham, who refused to give details on a range of policy issues such as how and when defense spending would be increased and options for social care reform, rejected the idea that he was stalling, saying he was “quite active” in his early days.

But pressed on ideas such as whether he would consider raising more money through a wealth tax, the prime minister said it was too early to look at such a thing.

“I’ve been here for four days,” he said in the interview, which was conducted on Thursday but aired on Monday evening. “Now you want me to write the next budget or the next manifesto.”

Burnham, who said he wanted to look at some changes to tax (such as council tax payment thresholds and ranges), said taking over office outside a general election was necessarily limited.

He said: “I am saying to you that we must honor the manifesto on which Labor was elected and if I were to put forward any changes, of course people would rightly say, well is this consistent with that manifesto?”

In defence, Burnham similarly argued that it was not fair for him to jump in if the UK hit its target of spending at least 3% of GDP on it.

But he argued that his decision to appoint John Healey as chancellor (Healey resigned from Keir Starmer’s government over what he said was an overly slow move towards 3%) showed his resolve.

Asked why he couldn’t say when 3% would be reached, Burnham said: “I think it’s a bit unfair because just a few days ago I was standing in Downing Street talking about the vital importance of Britain meeting its defense commitments.”