Andy Burnham proposes NHS-style national care service for England

Andy Burnham has set out a vision for a universal social care service in England that would be free at the point of use, telling the BBC that he is prepared to "rip the plaster off" to fix a system he described as "as unfair as American healthcare." The prime minister said the NHS-style service would be funded by "everybody," but he declined to give details on how it would be paid for, saying a review is continuing and more information will come in his conference speech on Tuesday. Burnham made the comments as the Labour party conference began in Liverpool, speaking to Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC.

He ruled out implementing reforms before the next general election, currently due in 2029, and said the proposals would be put into Labour's next manifesto so voters could give their endorsement. "I will develop a very clear plan and I will put that plan to the public at a general election and that will be where the plan gets tested," he said. The prime minister acknowledged the political risk of a costly and complicated nationwide reform. "Somebody needs to grasp the nettle. I will be the one to do that," he said.

"I realise it might require me to spend some political capital, that it might make me unpopular with some, but that isn't going to stop [me]." He said the current system means the "most vulnerable in society can lose everything, they can be wiped out." Burnham said the annual cost of an NHS-style service was "not as high" as the £18bn figure that has been suggested, but added that the challenge in public finances is real and reform would have to be done "without putting extra strain on the public purse."

Asked if everyone would contribute, he replied: "It will be a system of that kind. So everyone contributes, everyone's covered, but not precisely necessarily in the same way that we currently pay for the NHS. This is for Baroness Casey to advise us on." Baroness Casey, originally tasked by former PM Sir Keir Starmer to deliver a review of social care in 2028, has been asked by Burnham to bring that forward to next summer. The details she develops would be subject to cross-party talks in a bid to build consensus.

Burnham said reform cannot happen without consensus and warned against scaremongering: "If we continue to approach this issue with politics as usual, where people are scoring points and they're taking a proposal and then trying to frighten the public at home about it, we will never fix it." The death of Burnham's father, Roy, who had Alzheimer's and died earlier this month, has pushed him on the issue.