Andy Burnham pledges to change pension triple lock to fund national care service

In a speech that was over an hour, the Prime Minister made bold announcements on water, electoral reform and Brexit.

Andy Burnham has set out a radical plan that he claims will transform Britain, pledging to change the pensions triple lock to pay for a national care service if he wins the next election.

He also announced measures to pave the way for public control of water companies and said he would put proportional representation on the ballot.

Mr Burnham intimated that he wants to rejoin the EU and said he would seek a consensus around closer ties with Europe.

“I accept I may pay a political price,” he said, in his first Labour Party Conference speech as Prime Minister.

“But someone has to go through the pain barrier and rip the plaster off.”

In a 70-minute speech that was littered with major policy announcements, Mr Burnham confirmed he wants to end the current pensions triple lock, which guarantees increases in line with the highest of inflation, earnings or 2.5 per cent, in order to free up cash to fund his long-held ambition of creating a NHS-style care service in England.

He said the triple lock would stay until the end of this Parliament, and then he would put the changes on the ballot at the next election.

Under the plan, the state pension would rise in line with inflation or 2.5 per cent from 2030, breaking the triple lock’s automatic link with increases in average earnings.

But officials insisted it will also rise by more than this if needed in some years, to ensure it holds its value relative to earnings.

Mr Burnham said that the savings would be used to fund a national care service, which would provide at-home care free at the point of use.

“A state pension that rises every year, no care charges and a high quality national care service to give people peace of mind later in life,” he said.

“I will do it in memory of my dad and out of complete respect for anyone who cared for him.”

The Prime Minister got emotional when talking about his dad Roy, who died since he entered No10 after suffering with Alzheimer’s.

At one point, he took a long pause before a crowd member shouted “go, on Andy”.

And then later he choked up as he said: The United Kingdom my dad represented is the one I believe in.”

He spoke of his father’s as he pitched the radical changes to social care and the triple lock.

He also described how his grandmother Kitty’s engagement ring was “ripped from her finger and stolen in a care home – care not worthy of the name”.

He apologised to care workers, saying: “I watched closely the people who looked after my dad, caring for other people’s parents on poverty pay but doing it with huge skill, humour and humanity, holding a threadbare system somehow together yet invisible to the political class of this country.

“I want to speak directly today to our care workers – you are not invisible to me. I see you, I thank you and I am sorry that my profession has let down yours for so long.”

Mr Burnham promised to set up “a person-centred, high-quality care service that starts in the home – a system in the best traditions of this party, where everyone contributes and everyone is covered, free at the point of use, and no care charges paid out of your basic state pension”.

He said Baroness Louise Casey’s commission would advise on the exact method of a national care service.

It will not cover bed and board but include at home care, officials said.