Tories and Reform UK tell Burnham they will fight any plan to reform adult social care involving tax rises – UK politics live | Politics

Good morning. Yesterday Wes StreetThe defense secretary told Sky News that while Andy Burnham will spend his first week as Prime Minister focusing on living costs, this week the public will see “a prime minister who is rushing towards the big, difficult issues”. [them]”. These challenges include reforming social care and Peter Walker reports, burnham He vowed to use “the political capital I have” to finally fix the collapsing social care system in England and said without swift action the NHS could effectively collapse.

Burnham was speaking in a 30-minute interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, which appears on Panorama tonight. BBC published the full interview on iPlayer this morning at 6amand there is an article on the BBC website Here.

Burnham will give a speech on social care on Wednesday, but will also tackle other issue issues this week. Accordingly Andrew McDonald And Megan McElroy in them London Playbook briefing For Politico, we’re getting some announcements about young people returning to work tomorrow, with a defense announcement due on Thursday and Burnham expected to announce plans on Friday (first report in the Sunday Times) to provide greater control over how government money is spent in their areas.

In his interview with Kuenssberg, burnham He was asked whether he would introduce a new social care system before the next election. He did not fulfill this commitment; It only has three years at best, and full reform could take the better part of a decade. But he said he wanted to move forward “as quickly as possible on reform” and that there were “big changes you can make before the next election”.

Burnham does not need Conservative Party votes to legislate for social care reform in the House of Commons because she has a working majority of 166. But Burnham’s plans will not survive if the next election results in Labor being replaced by a government determined to break them up. Ed DaveyLiberal Democrat leader, stated He hopes Burnham will produce plans that the Liberal Democrats can support. However UK Reformation And conservatives Both have signaled that they may use their opposition against the Burnham plan. While Burnham was health secretary before the 2010 general election, he put forward a proposal to fund better social care through inheritance tax. The Conservatives were quick to label it a death tax, it became widely unpopular and Labor had largely abandoned the idea even before losing the election.

We don’t know what Burnham will propose this time; Senior Whitehall fixer Louise Casey is leading the review and Burnham is expected to ask her to produce a final report soon rather than waiting until 2028 as originally planned. But Burnham mentioned a “care tax” case.

Inside An article in the Sunday Telegraph Yesterday, Robert JenrickA spokesman for the Reform UK Treasury said his party would oppose anything that amounts to a “radical tax grab”. He said voters “rightly want meaningful efficiency savings, not another tax attack” and challenged Burnham to hold an election on the issue. He was repeating this message In Great Britain News.

This morning Open letter to Burnham, Kemi Badenoch He has hinted that he is willing to work with Labor on this issue. “The Conservatives are happy to work with you and other parties on social care reform,” he says. But he also makes clear that he would furiously fight any plan Burnham was realistically likely to propose.

He says:

But we will only support a solution that complies with two basic principles.

Firstly, any solution to the problems of social care must also be fair to those who have prepared and saved throughout their lives.

Second, money needs to be found by reducing current spending. You should ignore any tax increases or borrowing increases that will ultimately fall on the shoulders of the next generation.

Compared to the last Conservative government’s budget plans, spending in 2028/29 alone will be £152bn higher (this is 11% above what was planned that year under the Conservatives). As a result, taxes will be £105bn higher (an 8% increase) and borrowing will be £47bn higher (more than double previous plans).

The tax burden has risen to a record high under Labour, and there is speculation that you will raise taxes further in this autumn’s budget to pay for outstanding funding gaps for the defense investment plan, on top of everything you announced in your first week.

(Labour is spending far more than the last Conservative government budgeted for the second half of this decade. But the Conservative Party’s long-term spending forecasts were widely criticized by economists at the time as unrealistically low.)

I’ll be sharing more about Burnham’s BBC interview soon.

Here is the agenda of the day.

11.30: A lobby briefing is being held in Downing Street.

Afternoon: Andy Burnham met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a naval base in the UK.

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