Badenoch tells PM: no tax rises for social care
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- Kemi Badenoch wrote to PM Andy Burnham on Sunday demanding he 'rule out any tax rises or increased borrowing' to fund social care reform.
- Badenoch set two conditions for Conservative support: the solution must be fair to those who 'made provisions and saved up over the course of their lives', and funded by reducing current spending rather than new taxation.
- Badenoch argued against new taxes by citing businesses closing or relocating, youth unemployment higher than in the eurozone, and cost-of-living hardship, writing: 'the last thing Britain needs is further tax increases.'
- Andy Burnham is expected to make a speech on adult social care this week; a No 10 source framed it as part of his plan to 'run towards problems that have been neglected.'
- Burnham first proposed a universal social care system in England in 2009 when he served as health secretary under Gordon Brown.
- Sir Ed Davey publicly called for cross-party consensus on social care; Burnham replied on X: 'It most certainly is, Ed. Let's work together to find some common ground.'
Why it matters: Badenoch's two preconditions — no new taxes, no new borrowing — effectively force Burnham to find savings from existing departmental budgets before he even delivers his social care speech this week. The issue has a track record of consuming political capital without resolution: Boris Johnson pledged to 'fix the crisis' in his 2017 first speech as PM, and Labour scrapped its £86,000 cap on personal care costs in July 2024 under Sir Keir Starmer.
