Tories and Reform UK tell Burnham they will fight any plan to reform adult social care involving tax rises – UK politics live

Published 27 July 2026 · politics

Defence secretary Wes Streeting says the country will see a prime minister that ‘runs towards big and difficult issues’ Good morning. Yesterday Wes Streeting, the

Defence secretary Wes Streeting says the country will see a prime minister that ‘runs towards big and difficult issues’ Good morning. Yesterday Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, told Sky News that, while Andy Burnham spent his first week as PM focusing on cost of living issues, this week the public would see “a prime minister that runs towards big and difficult issues rather than runs away from [them]”.

Those challenges include reforming social care and, as Peter Walker reports, Burnham has pledged to use “whatever political capital I have” to finally fix the crumbling social care system in England, saying that without rapid action the NHS could effectively collapse. Burnham was speaking in a 30-minute interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg going out on Panorama tonight.

The BBC put the full interview on iPlayer at 6am this morning, and there is a write-up on the BBC’s website here. But we will only support a solution that abides by two core principles. First, any solution to the issues around social care must also be fair to those who have made provisions and saved up over the course of their lives.

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