Burnham turns to Tories and Lib Dems for social care solutions: ‘Help me fix this’

Andy Burnham has challenged his rivals to join him, putting political points aside to find a solution to England’s social care crisis.

The New Labor prime minister will hold a summit in Downing Street on Wednesday with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey to find a way to deliver social care before collapsing the NHS.

Ahead of a speech at a care home in north London on Wednesday morning, Mr Burnham said: “I said last week we need a different kind of politics: problem-solving, not scoring points. Nowhere is this more urgent than social care.”

“For decades, governments have shelved this issue because they saw it as too risky, too difficult, too complex.

“Politicians may have different views but I am serious about solving this problem and to do so we must find common ground and listen to others to find a way forward.

“If the human cost of this means carers struggle, families pay the price and our NHS collapses under the pressure, it is time to draw a line under people playing politics.”

But the initiative comes at a time of growing concern about the state of the economy and the government’s ability to pay for Mr Burnham’s initiatives.

There are already major questions about how it will fund the £2bn commitments to scrap VAT on energy bills, cap bus fares at £2 and cut business rates for pubs and clubs by 20 per cent.

In addition, a major think tank will warn that inflation will reach almost 4 per cent next year and the government’s borrowing capacity is maxed out, meaning everything will have to be financed through tax increases and spending cuts.

This will especially hit the defense; Mr Burnham will need to find £5bn to £18bn to meet Britain’s commitments and it has been suggested he wants to issue war bonds, another form of debt, to finance the deficit.

Sir Ed, who led the Liberal Democrats to prioritize tough solutions to the care crisis ahead of Wednesday’s summit, said his party was keen to work with Mr Burnham. Ms Badenoch also offered to work with Mr Burnham but warned she would not support new tax increases to fund it.

When Mr Burnham was health secretary in 2009, he tried to find a common solution to care by taxing assets when people died. But Conservatives opposed him and accused him of trying to create a “death tax.”

Mr Burnham did not invite Reform England to join the talks, even though Labor had been ahead in the polls for 15 months until it overtook them this week.

But Reformation launched a pre-emptive attack, accusing Mr. Burnham of wanting to revive the “death tax” scheme; this claim was immediately rejected by Downing Street.

But in a bid to bridge the political divide, Mr Burnham said: “It’s a choice. We can continue to pass the problem on to future generations, or we can confront it head on and work together to create a system of care that gives people the dignity, security and support they deserve.”

“This is about restoring hope and making Britain believe again that we can finally solve the difficult problems that have been ignored for too long.

“That’s why I’m making this choice and I’m willing to put everything I have behind it.”

The prime minister, who visited a care home on Wednesday, will say he has made the choice to fix the broken social care system by finding common ground across parties to tackle big problems.

It will seek to highlight decades of regression and the refusal to tackle these problems directly, and will call on all political parties to focus on solving the problems and finding solutions together.

It will reiterate the need for a new kind of politics that puts aside differences to come together and confront the challenges that Westminster has left unaddressed for too long.

He will be joined by new health secretary Yvette Cooper and Baroness Louise Casey, who leads the Independent Commission on Adult Social Care, which will prepare recommendations on the delivery of the National Care Service.

Baroness Casey will also launch the Big Care Conversation, which will give members of the public the chance to share their views and help shape the future of adult social care in England, aimed at the people it will serve.

It will be open to everyone via a new online platform and we will start the conversation by asking people about the values ​​and principles we should expect from a system of care.

Baroness Casey said: “For too long we have been stuck in the same cycle: crisis, promises of reform, new review and then withdrawal, with people and families needing care bearing the brunt.

“Fixing adult social care is about so much more than money. People are already paying the price for failure through council tax, pressure on the NHS, savings, giving up jobs and the forced sale of their homes. The choice is whether we continue to put money into an unfair, unpredictable and broken system, or have an honest conversation about how to build something better.”

“That’s why we need a public conversation that answers tough questions about care. We can only solve social care by confronting this problem together.”

Responding, Conservative shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew said: “Andy Burnham and Labor cannot rely on vague promises of reform without a clear plan for implementation and a detailed plan of what will happen and when.

“The Conservatives are ready to work with Labor on measures to improve social care, provided they do not remain reliant on further tax rises and borrowing.”

Sir Ed said: “There have been 22 failed attempts at social care reform since 1997. To see the 23rd effort work, we need to do things differently.

“My party has been pushing for cross-party talks on care for years because that’s the only way to create a solution that really works. Nothing matters for carers and our country, so I’m looking forward to meeting the prime minister to start those talks.”