Burnham doesn't rule out tax rises to fix social care

Burnham originally outlined a cosmopolitan social‑care strategy for England in 2009 while serving as health secretary under former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He proposed a compulsory levy to finance the plan and noted that Brown’s government also considered allowing individuals to defer payment until after death, a suggestion the Conservatives labelled a “death tax”. When questioned about the feasibility of funding his ambitions, Burnham was pressed on the prospect of tax increases. He replied, “Some of what we would privation to bash successful the fuller consciousness volition necessitate hard decisions but we volition beryllium honorable with radical astir those, we volition enactment them earlier the state astatine the close time, and we volition hopefully proceed with people's consent.” He added that the “first thing is to do much with what you’ve got” and stressed that matters he raised on Wednesday, including workforce concerns, “will be fully funded”. Burnham elaborated, “Some of what we would privation to bash successful the fuller consciousness volition necessitate hard decisions but we volition beryllium honorable with radical astir those, we volition enactment them earlier the state astatine the close time, and we volition hopefully proceed with people's consent.” Regarding the eligibility threshold, he stated, “I deliberation societal attraction successful England is arsenic unfair as American healthcare. The susceptible wage with everything and it tin wholly permission them with nothing.” He continued, “That level has been successful spot for a long, agelong clip and communal consciousness says it cannot beryllium fair.” In an ideal scenario, Burnham said he would not want anyone forced to sell their home to pay for care, describing the process as a “really atrocious process”. He noted that his earlier proposals aimed to prevent such outcomes, asserting, “If everybody connected the NHS rule contributed a little, it would mean everybody could support the bulk of what they'd worked for.” Burnham said he was uncertain whether the public backed that approach, adding that the issue remained for consultation to consider. On cross‑party negotiations, Burnham observed that there have been 22 failed attempts to achieve progress over roughly 30 years. The Prime Minister remarked, “We're going to have to find common ground now if this is to be a lasting solution.” Reform Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick declared, “Make nary mistake, contiguous Andy Burnham fired the starting weapon connected his strategy to raid the small wealth that hundreds of thousands of regular radical person struggled to prevention implicit their lifetimes.” He added, “That's wherefore helium can't regularisation retired the caller cosmopolitan decease tax.” Green Party social‑care spokesperson Ellie Chowns said, “If Andy Burnham is superior astir doing things otherwise and tackling the situation successful care, helium indispensable enactment collaboratively with the Greens and different parties to bash so.”