New British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has unveiled plans for a new National Care Service to be integrated into the National Health Service (NHS), Britain’s public healthcare system, sparking concerns over tax rises to fund the proposal.
| PULSE POINTS |
❓ WHAT HAPPENED: New British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has not ruled out tax rises to fund a new National Care Service, tasked with providing senior and disability care. 📰 DETAIL: On Wednesday, Prime Minister Burnham unveiled plans for a new National Care Service, pay increases for care workers, improved care training, and integrating the care sector with the already socialized National Health Service (NHS). Burnham also announced that an ongoing review into social care would be published next summer, earlier than previously planned under his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer. The Prime Minister has reportedly initiated talks with the Liberal Democrats, a progressive liberal party that supports open borders and re-joining the European Union, and Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives, the nominally center-right party responsible for the migrant “Boriswave.” He has not invited Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party or Zack Polanski’s far-left Green Party, despite the former coming ahead of the Lib Dems in the popular vote in the 2024 general election and topping most national polls for months. Burnham first proposed a universal social care system while serving as Secretary of Health in the Labour government of then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown back in 2009. At the time, Burnham proposed a levy on people’s estates after they die to fund the idea, characterized as a “death tax” on top of Britain’s existing inheritance tax. “Some of what we would want to do in the fuller sense will require difficult decisions but we will be honest with people about those, we will put them before the country at the right time, and we will hopefully proceed with people’s consent,” said the Prime Minister in a speech at Westminster on Wednesday. 💬 KEY QUOTE: “Make no mistake, today Andy Burnham fired the starting gun on his scheme to raid the little money that hundreds of thousands of regular people have struggled to save over their lifetimes. That’s why he can’t rule out the new universal death tax,” commented Reform UK Shadow Chancellor Robert Jenrick. 🎯 IMPACT: The fact that Burnham is only consulting two other parties suggests that the new Prime Minister’s offer of consensus-building only extends to those belonging to the political establishment. The likelihood of tax rises is likely to spark backlash as the country languishes under a rising cost of living. This represents Burnham’s most substantive and significant policy proposal since becoming Prime Minister last week. It was reported earlier this month that Burnham was planning a tax raid worth roughly $51 billion on Britain’s middle class. |
Image by Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street.
Join Pulse+ to comment below, and receive exclusive e-mail analyses.
show less
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
