Badenoch tells Burnham: 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, while offering Conservative cooperation on the issue.
- Badenoch set two conditions for Tory support: reform must be funded by reducing current spending rather than new taxation, and must be fair to those who have "made provisions and saved up over the course of their lives."
- Badenoch argued against tax rises by citing businesses "closing or relocating," youth unemployment "higher than in the eurozone," and ongoing cost-of-living hardship as reasons new taxes would harm Britain.
- Andy Burnham is expected to deliver a speech on adult social care this week, with a No 10 source describing 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 as health secretary under Gordon Brown and has pledged to spend political capital on the issue as prime minister.
- Previous governments have repeatedly failed to deliver reform: Boris Johnson pledged in his 2019 first speech as PM to "fix the crisis in social care once and for all," while Sir Keir Starmer's Labour government scrapped plans for an £86,000 cap on lifetime personal care costs in July 2024.
- Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called for cross-party consensus and pledged to fight for family carers; Burnham replied on X, "It most certainly is, Ed. Let's work together to find some common ground."
Why it matters: Badenoch's two conditions effectively constrain Burnham's fiscal options for a reform he has personally championed since 2009 — the same policy graveyard that claimed Johnson's 2019 pledge and Starmer's 2024 cap. The simultaneous overture from Ed Davey indicates Burnham has an alternative cross-party path, but only if he accepts Conservative red lines against new taxes.
