{"id":784808,"date":"2026-09-28T01:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T01:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/784808\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T01:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T01:44:09","slug":"andy-burnham-to-fight-next-election-with-plan-for-nhs-style-care-service-labour-conference-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/784808\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham to fight next election with plan for NHS-style care service | Labour conference 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham will fight the next election with a pledge to finally fix the broken social care system, acknowledging he is willing to expend political capital by asking taxpayers to cover the cost.<\/p>\n

As Labour\u2019s party conference began in Liverpool, he pledged to \u201crip the plaster off\u201d to radically transform care, setting out a vision for a universal service that would be free at the point of use for everyone in England.<\/p>\n

The prime minister said the new NHS-style service would be funded by \u201ceverybody\u201d but did not give further details on how his long-term plan would be paid for, indicating that a tax rise may be on the cards.<\/p>\n

One option could be to link reform of social care with looking again at the pensions triple lock, with government insiders not ruling it out in the future.<\/p>\n

He said Labour would put the proposals into its next general election manifesto so voters could give their endorsement, in the hope of reducing the risk that political attacks over \u201cdeath taxes\u201d would sink the policy.<\/p>\n

Burnham acknowledged there were risks in a nationwide reform, likely to be costly and complicated to implement, although he rejected suggestions it could cost \u00a318bn a year. \u201cIt\u2019s not that high,\u201d he told the BBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody needs to grasp the nettle. I will be the one to do that,\u201d he said. \u201cI realise it might require me to spend some political capital, that it might make me unpopular with some, but that isn\u2019t going to stop [me].\u201d<\/p>\n

But he said he would take his time to work out how it could be fairly funded. \u201cThe challenge in the public finances is real. So it has to be done carefully, without putting extra strain on the public purse. But I will bring forward proposals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s annual gathering is intended to be an upbeat affair, with the prime minister wanting to restore hope that some of the country\u2019s most intractable political problems can be solved despite severe economic headwinds.<\/p>\n

With political courage a theme of the conference, he said in an interview with the Guardian<\/a> at the weekend: \u201cThere\u2019s always things you can do, it\u2019s just whether you\u2019re prepared to do them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnham acknowledged the public finances were \u201cchallenging\u201d ahead of next month\u2019s budget but he said delivering fiscal stability would be \u201ccrucial\u201d, because only then would the government be able to focus on fixing bigger problems.<\/p>\n

A series of global economic shocks, including the Iran conflict, has put the UK economy under intense inflationary pressure and pushed up borrowing costs, leaving the government with limited room for manoeuvre.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Burnham said he did not want to focus on a \u201cnarrative of doom\u201d about the UK\u2019s economy but that he would show in his leader\u2019s speech that he was prepared to take tough decisions.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged there was \u201creal concern\u201d in the financial markets about the state of the British economy, pointing to the \u201cfebrile\u201d global backdrop. He said he was willing to cut government spending to balance the books, and he believed money could be saved by taking a more \u201cproductive\u201d long-term approach to issues such as rough sleeping and youth unemployment.<\/p>\n

Amid concerns that the government could be hemmed in at the budget by the parlous state of the public finances, he said the chancellor, John Healey, would be \u201chighly prudent\u201d in running the economy. \u201cI won\u2019t do what the previous Tory government did and take risks with the economy that are actually still hurting us right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Burnham suggested to the Guardian that a significant fiscal buffer would be necessary, with speculation that the Treasury could now consider \u00a315bn acceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think it is crucial to have stability and to show that there\u2019s a willingness to face up to the reality of some of these difficult things,\u201d he said. \u201cBut actually from that stability, the permission can come to make bigger change that, in the end, could put the country in a stronger position in relation to the public finances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Louise Haigh, the de facto deputy prime minister, and Healey are using the conference to stress the government\u2019s commitment to boosting British manufacturing through procurement.<\/p>\n

Healey will tell the conference on Monday he plans to commission three new floating docks to service navy submarines, with the tendering process only open to British companies. The chancellor will promise \u201ca new age of industrialisation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Haigh is using her speech to announce a \u00a3115m marine research vessel for assessing fish stocks, mapping the seabed, monitoring pollution and responding to marine incidents.<\/p>\n

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said the \u201cheavy lifting\u201d on making the case for rejoining the EU needed to be done by the government now, after Burnham signalled that the move could be in the next manifesto.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pitch rolling must be done now, explaining to the country the dis-benefits of being outside the European Union and the benefits of being part of this family,\u201d Khan said.<\/p>\n

However, the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, appeared to criticise Khan \u2013 and Burnham \u2013 telling Politico that the speculation \u201cfrankly cause[s] a lot of uncertainty for business\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, plans for a third runway at Heathrow are once again up in the air after Burnham refused to say<\/a> whether he backed the \u201ccontested\u201d project, which is delayed by up to four years, saying it was \u201cprincipally\u201d a matter for London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham will fight the next election with a pledge to finally fix the broken social care system,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-784808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784808","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=784808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}