![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/ace\/standard\/128\/cpsprodpb\/\/vivo\/live\/images\/2023\/11\/15\/b9eb2a7b-b156-46ad-b4fa-fb47dc1b0972.jpg.webp\")
Chris MasonPolitical editor<\/p>\n
Burnham likely to focus political energy on social carepublished at 11:30 BST<\/p>\n
11:30 BST<\/p>\n
Chris Mason
Political editor<\/p>\n
In a social media video shot and edited by his team in Cardiff recently, Andy Burnham brought attention to a massive issue that the country confronts: social care.<\/p>\n
He talked of his own family\u2019s experience in England, given his dad has Alzheimer\u2019s, and said he is “going to expend quite a lot of political capital” in this area.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s referring to England, because social care is devolved \u2014 and so is the responsibility of Holyrood, the Senedd and Stormont in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland respectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolitical capital\u201d is Westminster speak for the credit you have with your own side and with the country, that tends to get used up as you do difficult, often unpopular things.<\/p>\n
And Andy Burnham knows a thing or two about how difficult and unpopular wrestling with social care can be.<\/p>\n
![\"Health](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5e339bbf-28f3-4049-b7be-9635cb7ff020.jpg.webp\")
Image source, ReutersImage caption, <\/p>\n
Health and Social Care Secretary James Murray<\/p>\n
This week, 17 years ago, as health secretary, Burnham told the House of Commons that \u201cwe need to end the cruel lottery of older people facing financial hardship because they happen to get dementia, for example, rather than cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour proposed what they called a \u201cNational Care Service\u201d – paid for by a flat 10% fee charged on dead people\u2019s estates.<\/p>\n
But Labour\u2019s political opponents branded it a \u201cdeath tax\u201d, Labour went on to lose the 2010 election and the idea fizzled out.<\/p>\n
So Andy Burnham has unfinished business. But how would he sell the idea now. As so often with political choices, there is a central question: who pays for it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Burnham likely to focus political energy on social carepublished at 11:30 BST 11:30 BST Chris MasonPolitical editor In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-696481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}