Tories weigh skipping their own social care plan ahead of UK election
Britain's Conservative Party is considering not presenting its own social care reform offer before the next general election, hoping Labour's plans collapse on their own.
British Labour Prime Minister Andy Burnham used his first conference speech as party leader in Liverpool last week to raise several politically sensitive issues, including a proposal to alter the state pension "triple lock" in order to fund a major overhaul of social care. Several members of Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch's shadow Cabinet, speaking anonymously, acknowledged the party may choose not to put forward its own substantial care reform plan before the next general election, due by 2029. One frontbencher pointed to the 2017 election, when Labour had no social care policy of its own but benefited from the collapse of then-Prime Minister Theresa May's reform plan.
Pension lock divides the party
The pension triple lock, which raises state pensions by the highest of inflation, 2.5%, or average earnings, is particularly significant for the Conservatives, who introduced the mechanism in 2011. However, some party figures, including former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Shadow Foreign Secretary Tom Tugendhat, have publicly acknowledged that maintaining the current system is unsustainable for the state budget. Burnham's proposed changes would save an estimated £15 billion a year by 2040, with the savings directed toward social care reform.
Although the changes would not take effect until 2030, Labour plans to pass legislation on them in parliament before the next election, putting the Conservatives in an awkward position. Badenoch currently treats maintaining the triple lock as official party policy. Some shadow Cabinet members argue that simply having no distinct plan is itself a kind of policy, while others warn that during the election campaign the party will need to clearly state its position on an issue that matters greatly in many voters' lives.
