Streeting wanted 'more ambitious' social care policy
Streeting says 'economic growth needed for social care boost'
- Published
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has said he would have wanted Labour's manifesto plans on social care to be "more ambitious".
Speaking to the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, he said to get a policy into Labour's manifesto he had to run a "gauntlet" of whether it was deliverable and affordable.
He suggested there could be more spending on health than outlined in the manifesto in later years - but only if a Labour government was to be voted in and then succeed in its plan for economic growth.
Seizing on this point, Conservative Mark Harper, the transport secretary, said Mr Streeting had "let the cat out the bag" that Labour would raise taxes if elected, although Mr Streeting denied this.
Conservative support is at its lowest-ever level according to the latest Survation poll, with forecasts suggesting that the party could be reduced to a fifth of its 2019 seats, with about 70 remaining in the Commons, and haemorrhaging votes to Reform.
Mr Harper said his party was still fighting to stay in government and voters who wanted lower taxes would be better off supporting the Conservatives than Reform.
He also repeated the disputed claim a Labour government would increase taxes by £2,000, which Labour denies.
The Labour manifesto includes £2bn of extra funding each year, some of which would go towards tackling NHS waiting lists - and the party has pledged to end nearly a decade of failure to meet cancer treatment targets.
But the party has been criticised for not setting out detailed costings, with health think tank Nuffield Trust and the Institute for Fiscal Studies warning that health plans from both Labour and the Tories would “almost certainly” need much more cash.
Pressed on why there were no manifesto plans for raising money to fund social care, despite pledging to "get a grip" on it, Mr Streeting said: "I make no bones about it, of course on social care I would have wanted the manifesto to be more ambitious.
He said Labour's first steps in government would include negotiating a fair pay agreement for carers to increase the workforce and tackle delayed discharges from hospitals.
Mr Streeting said he had no plans to change delays to a cap on care costs, implemented by the current government, despite agreeing with a viewer of the Laura Kuenssberg show that his mother spending all her savings on care was unfair.
Calling for cross-party work to improve the system, he said: "The Lib Dems have got some good ideas, other parties have got good ideas, let’s try and work together... to see if we can do something that has escaped and eluded every single government."
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey also appeared on the show and Ms Kuenssberg highlighted he was a minister in the Lib Dem-Conservative coalition government between 2010 and 2015, which made significant cuts to adult social care.
Sir Ed said he "fought very hard" on the issue and his party got the Care Act of 2014 - based on the the Dilnot Commission recommendations - through parliament but said the Conservatives later "reneged on their promises".
Mr Streeting claimed there would be "tens of billions of pounds available" if the economy had grown at the same rate under 14 years of Conservative government as under the last Labour one.
Questioned about whether council tax might increase, he said: "We don't want to see the tax burden on working people increase."
He added: "None of those pledges in our manifesto requires increases in council tax or increases in fuel duty or any of the other number of taxes the Tories are claiming we want to increase."
However, he did add "my ambition is to go further" on spending around health issues including social care, leaving the door open to funding increases for the NHS "once we get the economy growing".
"We don’t want to see the tax burden on working people increase," he said. "I know the Conservatives have baked into their plans council tax rises, that’s in the government’s spending forecast."
Asked about the think tanks suggesting that Labour's sums don't add up, Mr Streeting said Labour's manifesto was “not a spending review”, implying there could be more spending "if conditions allow".
Mr Harper claimed that Mr Streeting had “let the cat out of the bag a bit about Labour’s plans”.
He said his comments showed Labour's manifesto "actually wasn’t the whole story" but was "a document to get them through the election campaign".
"And he’s confirmed that there are more spending promises to come, and that can only mean one thing," he said. "It means more taxes.”
Under Conservative governments since 2010, Ms Kuenssberg pointed out, people are paying 51% more in cash terms on council tax in England, which is forecast to increase by £10bn over the next five years.
Mr Harper said Conservative councils delivered better services with lower council tax than Labour ones, but was challenged by Ms Kuenssberg.
She said the average Band D property tends to be higher in Labour-run councils but the overall average council tax bill tends to be lower in Labour councils.
He was also challenged over criticism from former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, who had said voters are switching to Reform because taxes are too high, the criminal justice system is too lenient and public services are too inefficient, despite 14 years of Tory government.
"Yes, our record is important, I think in many areas our record is very impressive," he said. "But elections are about the future and they’re about choices.
"They’re about whether you want to cut taxes - our manifesto has a clear costed plan to do that, Labour’s is about raising taxes - ours is about cutting migration, legal and illegal, a clear plan to do so, Labour’s is not - that’s a very clear choice for people."
Reacting to the BBC interviews, Greater Manchester's Labour Mayor Andy Burnham told the programme he was "encouraged" by Mr Streeting's pledges on fixing social care, including a pay rise for carers, but called for an end to "point-scoring" because both Labour and the Tories "have failed on it".
"It's a difficult inheritance for the Labour Party," Mr Burnham said.
"In the end the only answer is to provide social care on NHS terms and to ask for a contribution from people that is proportionate to their assets."