03/08/2026
Disabled people’s organisations have welcomed the new prime minister’s pledge that he will face the challenge of fixing the “broken” social care system “head on”, ending decades of “political drift”.
Although Andy Burnham has previously described social care charges as an “abomination”, he did not promise to abolish them yesterday.
But he said he was making social care reform “a test of myself whether I can bring forward a solution, or I would never forgive myself, ever” and he promised to “stick this out”.
In a speech at a care home in north London on Wednesday, Burnham said it was a “major dereliction of public duty” by “point-scoring” MPs that social care reform had not yet been achieved, despite 22 reviews over three decades.
He said there were about two million adults with unmet care needs in England, while disabled adults say they face “very unfair care charges just to live their life”.
Disabled people’s organisations have welcomed the new prime minister’s pledge that he will face the challenge of fixing the “broken” social care system “head on”, ending decades of “political drift…
