Fourteen thousand medically fit patients are stuck in hospital beds in England every day, unable to be discharged because there is no social care available for them – a crisis that Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has seized upon to set strict conditions on any reform.
In a letter to Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Badenoch offered to work with him on adult social care but demanded he “rule out any tax rises or increased borrowing” to fund it. She insisted any solution must be funded by reducing current spending and be fair to those who “made provisions and saved up over the course of their lives.”
“Kemi Badenoch offers to work with PM on social care but demands no tax rises, as 14,000 patients are stuck in hospital.”
“With businesses closing or relocating, youth unemployment higher than in the eurozone, and the cost of living already causing real hardship for many people, the last thing Britain needs is further tax increases to pay for social care,” Badenoch wrote.
Burnham, who first proposed a universal social care system in 2009 when he was health secretary under Gordon Brown, was expected to make a major speech on the issue this week. A No 10 source said this was part of his plan to “run towards problems that have been neglected.”
The delayed discharges that Badenoch’s party inherited have cost the NHS £2.7 billion in 2025/26 alone, according to figures cited by the Mirror. The human cost is even starker: Age UK collected heartbreaking accounts from elderly people who lost their health and independence after home care visits were cancelled while they were in hospital, leaving them unable to be discharged home. One 70-year-old told the Mirror she discharged herself to a budget hotel and had been living there for five months.
Burnham, whose father Roy has Alzheimer’s and lives in a care home, has vowed to spend political capital on the issue. But he is not the first leader to try. In 2019, Boris Johnson said the Conservatives would “fix the crisis in social care once and for all.” Five years later, Sir Keir Starmer scrapped plans for an £86,000 cap on personal care costs. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “This has to be the start of a real effort to end the social care catastrophe.”
Badenoch said she hoped the parties could “find common ground” on what she called a “hugely important issue.” But with the number of delayed discharges up 12% since June 2024 and 70% since 2021, and the Mirror’s Fair Care for All campaign calling for a national care service, a minister for the elderly and a living wage for carers, the question remains whether any solution can meet both the human need and the fiscal demands of the opposition.