LONDON — Andy Burnham wasted no time signaling his priorities as Britain’s new prime minister, telling reporters on Monday that he refuses to leave office without addressing the country’s long-standing social care crisis.
Just hours after stepping into his new Downing Street office, Burnham opened up about a deeply personal connection to the issue — his father’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. He pointed to a troubling pattern in which people who should be receiving social care are instead turning to an already overburdened public health system for support.
Burnham, who previously served as mayor of Greater Manchester in northwestern England, has spent years calling for an overhaul of how social care is funded and delivered. He has repeatedly argued that while politicians have stalled and delayed, countless older citizens have been forced to drain their finances and sell their homes to cover care costs.
“I think the country needs to step back here and say, ‘How have we let a situation kind of just roll on, where we know it’s a major issue, and yet no one’s got the courage to fix it?’ I just think that’s quite damning … of my generation of politicians,” Burnham said.
The new prime minister first attempted to reform social care funding during his time as health minister under Gordon Brown’s government. He said he has no intention of repeating what he described as nearly 30 years of governments avoiding the problem.
Unlike the state-funded National Health Service, social care in Britain is not provided free of charge to most residents. A long line of prime ministers has explored possible solutions — including placing a cap on out-of-pocket costs — but none have been able to build enough support for what would be a costly undertaking.
“It’s not defensible,” Burnham declared. “We need to face it and fix it.”
