Burnham Invites Tories and Lib Dems to Social Care Talks
The prime minister has invited Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaders to cross-party talks, as the head of an independent review told the BBC the care system is fairly bust.
Andy Burnham has invited the leaders of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to cross-party talks on social care, arguing that common ground between the parties is essential to fixing the system, the BBC reported.
The invitation came as Baroness Louise Casey, who is leading an independent review of the sector, told the BBC that "the system is fairly bust".
Who is attending
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said he would join the talks remotely. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch was unable to attend and sent shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew in her place.
Burnham did not invite the leaders of Reform UK or the Green Party of England and Wales.
The case for cross-party talks
Writing on X, Burnham said: "We can't kick this can down the road any longer. We have to find common ground and listen to others to find a way forward."
He added: "It is time to draw a line under people playing politics when the human cost of that means care is struggling, families paying the price and our NHS buckling under the strain."
He had told the BBC the previous week that the NHS would "collapse" if social care was not reformed, and said he did not want to leave office without delivering "substantial change". He pledged to put "whatever political capital" he had into the issue, though he did not set a timeline.
A problem he has tried to solve before
Burnham's involvement with this question goes back nearly two decades. As health secretary under Gordon Brown, he proposed a universal system of social care in England in 2009, funded by a compulsory levy.
Brown's government also floated allowing people to defer payment until after death — a proposal the Conservatives attacked as a "death tax". The row helped bury the plan, and no government since has resolved the funding question.
That history explains the emphasis on cross-party agreement now. Reform of social care requires decisions whose costs fall well beyond a single parliament, and previous attempts have collapsed once one party judged there was an electoral advantage in opposing them.
Whether this round proves different will depend less on the substance discussed than on whether the parties are willing to absorb the political cost together.
Reporting basis: BBC News.
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