Key facts
- UK Conservatives may not present a major social care offer before the next general election.
- Labour leader Andy Burnham has proposed changing the state pension triple lock to fund social care.
- The proposed change to the triple lock could save an estimated £15 billion annually by 2040.
- Some senior Conservatives, including Jeremy Hunt and Tom Tugendhat, have expressed concerns about the sustainability of the triple lock.
- The Conservative Party is considering a strategy of downplaying Burnham's savings estimates and focusing on reducing the working-age welfare bill.
The Conservative Party is contemplating a strategy to avoid presenting its own comprehensive social care reform plan before the upcoming general election, aiming to capitalize on potential difficulties with Labour's proposals. This approach, described by some as 'no policy is still a policy,' seeks to sidestep a contentious ideological debate over the extent of state intervention in social care.
Labour leader Andy Burnham has positioned social care reform as a central issue, proposing to alter the state pension's "triple lock" mechanism after the next election to generate an estimated £15 billion annually by 2040. These funds would then be directed towards a social care overhaul. This proposal has created internal divisions within the Conservative Party, as the triple lock is a policy cherished by many traditional Conservatives who rely on the retiree vote.
While some senior Tories, including former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Shadow Foreign Secretary Tom Tugendhat, have publicly acknowledged the unsustainability of the current triple lock, the party's leadership, under Kemi Badenoch, maintains it as current policy. The Conservative strategy appears to be downplaying the savings from Burnham's proposed triple lock adjustments and instead emphasizing potential savings from reducing the working-age welfare bill. However, the intensity of an election campaign may compel the Conservatives to articulate their own position on social care.
The differing approaches to social care and state intervention highlight a potential ideological battleground between Labour's vision of greater public control and the Conservatives' preference for a smaller state.