Social care reform could mean big risks and big rewards for Burnham

Image source, PA Media By Jack Fenwick Political correspondent Published 27 September 2026 The state of the social care system in England is a topic that's made Andy Burnham angry for decades.

As Gordon Brown's health secretary he proposed a compulsory levy collected from people's estates – an idea the Conservatives dubbed the "death tax".

He repeatedly returned to the issue when making interventions as the Mayor of Greater Manchester, and in his first major interview as prime minister back in July , Burnham pledged to put "whatever political capital I have into fixing broken social care".

We now have the first outline about how he hopes to do that.

But there are a host of unanswered questions about how the government would fund and deliver what could be an eye-wateringly expensive and politically perilous idea.