Social care reform is long overdue, and Burnham is right to spend political capital fixing a system that's failing millions. Delayed discharges alone cost the NHS £2.7 billion a year, with thousands of medically fit patients stuck in hospital beds daily due to a lack of care-worker capacity. A cross-party push to build a National Care Service is the only route to end this stain on Britain's social contract.
Burnham's cross-party social care push is hollow, without a straight answer on who foots the bill. Every past reform attempt collapsed because no one would detail its funding, with this latest stunt no different. Excluding Reform, who have been consistently leading polls from the last year, this conversation shows that the new PM is running the same establishment stitch-up dressed up as consensus.
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