Andy Burnham has announced that he will axe the triple lock in 2030 to pay for free social care as well as unveiling an elections shake-up to shut out the Right from power. The Mail has more.
Andy Burnham declared he will hit pensioners to help fund a huge Labour lurch to the Left today, vowing to put Britain on a “new path”.
In an unashamedly Socialist first leader’s speech to conference, the PM said the party’s next manifesto will commit to scrapping the “triple lock” on state pensions.
The curbs on payments to the elderly will generate “savings” that will go towards funding a giant NHS-style social care system – which could cost £18 billion a year.
A highly emotional Burnham told activists he would think of his father Roy, who died recently, as he “makes the case” for the “new settlement” – becoming tearful at times during the speech.
The idea was applauded in the hall, but has already caused a storm among unions and even unrest in the Cabinet. Critics have warned it is “electoral suicide”.
The premier made clear he wants a 1970s-style big-state Government controlling key parts of the economy. He urged a switch to a proportional representation system to help the Left stay in power and drive his vision through.
Labour will fight the next election on a platform of abolishing first past the post, fuelling fears that chaotic ‘rainbow coalitions’ of parties could end up dominating.
Burnham insisted Britain had been “on the wrong path for a long time”, pointing to “deindustrialisation, deregulation, privatisation, austerity and Brexit”.
He said he wanted to give people “hope again”, comparing his Government to Attlee’s that introduced the NHS in 1945. He committed to a new wave of council housing – without saying where the money will come from – and declared that Thatcherite Right to Buy rules will be ditched for new builds.
“We built the common good. Or at least we did until the 1980s,” Burnham said. “Suddenly, the common wealth we had created for the many was seen as an opportunity for the few.
“Homes. Water. Energy. Transport. Care. Broken up and sold off.”
Burnham said the Right had given up “control”. “Economic control weakened by selling off essentials,” he said.
“Political control corroded by the hollowing out of councils. Immigration control weakened by Brexit.
“Later this year, we will publish our plan for Britain. It will set out how, over 10 years, we will make this country work for you again.
“More control of the basics so that we can make it more functional. More power in the hands of people and places to set their own ambitions.”
Worth reading in full.
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Robert Jenrick just described Labour’s social care service as bo***cks on GB News. It just said it all, really.
The Blair/Brown brilliant (not) gerrymandering wheeze of devolution went hilariously wrong.
The thick as mince Andy Crapp and his cringingly awful maudlin emotes is well on the way to becoming a similar laughing stock.
No wonder he ruled out an early election…
Surely a change to the voting system should require a referendum?
It didn’t in Wales, where a hybrid system is used for the senedd elections.
I see your point but wasn’t that established in setting up the new Assembly – not changing elections to the Mother of Parliaments.
Ah well. We had the referendum to change to AV and I reckon too many people thought that was PR that the Lib Dems wanted.
With a two thirds majority.
Hopefully this has sealed Labour’s fate at the next GE.
““We built the common good.”
There is no common good – just Socialist, collectivist claptrap. Only the individual knows what is good for themselves and their family.
And “we” built an over-staffed, underinvested, inefficient, uncompetitive, failing economy that was doing so well – inflation 22%, mortgage rates, 16% bottom tax rate 35%, top 83% + 15% supertax for the wealthy, enormous debt – so “good” the IMF had to come and bail us out in 1976.
Coal mines: how many closed pre-1980? 890. How many after 1980? 160.
It is hard to understand what kind of mind this fool has. He certainly is not living in the real World.
A ruling Party rigging the electoral system to keep its opponents out and cling on to power.. UK has become Zimbabwe.
Andy the imbecile.
Blairs plan is carrying on
The “new path” of socialist state expansion that we’ve been on since the beginning of the 20th century.
Since 1945.
Aided by the damage caused by WW1 and its effects on the country and its finances.