Older people to get free care so they can stay in own homes under Lib Dem plan
Older people will get free care to help them stay in their own homes for longer, Sir Ed Davey has pledged.
The Liberal Democrat leader said the radical plan would help free up hospital beds, as well as allow people to live independently and with dignity. As he blasted Tory inaction on the social care crisis in an interview with the Mirror, he said adults of all ages who need care would be entitled to free help.
Under the plan - estimated to cost around £5billion - people in England would get assistance with essential daily tasks such as bathing and dressing. Those who move into a care home would get their nursing fees covered, but would still have to pay for their accommodation and meals.
Speaking at his home in Surbiton, south London, the Liberal Democrat leader said: “We believe we’ve got to have some bold measures on care. Fundamentally if you want to help people look after loved ones at home, so they can be discharged from hospital, we've got to have more support.
“So we will be proposing the idea of free personal care. This is quite bold, but I said when I became leader I wanted to be the voice of carers.” He added: "At the moment people pay for any care support they have and often they really struggle to pay that - really high costs.”
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The proposal will be combined with a Carers' Minimum Wage, with those in the profession paid £2-an-hour above the National Minimum Wage.
The former Cabinet minister has been a carer for most of his life. As a teenager he looked after his mother, Nina Joan, who had a terminal illness. “We didn't get much support - we needed it then. It was pitiful,” he said. He later looked after his grandmother and now cares for his disabled son, John, who was born with an undiagnosed neurological condition which means he cannot walk or talk. “We don’t get much help but we're fortunate enough, the family helps out, and we can get by because we can afford it. But there are millions of people that can't and they struggle, struggle, struggle.”
Since 2002 Scotland has offered free personal care to over 65s - a measure that was extended to all working-age people in 2019. Pointing to a House of Lords report from 2019, Sir Ed said introducing a similar scheme in England could cost between £4-5 billion a year. But he claimed there would be a “net cost of around £2billion” as it could save the NHS huge amounts in early discharges. “When we publish our manifesto, as we always do, we’ll publish our costings to show where the money is coming from,” he added.
Sir Ed’s comments come as he prepares for the Liberal Democrats ’ autumn conference, which kicks off in Bournemouth on Saturday. The party leader said he had a “skip in his step” after a series of stunning by-election victories - overturning huge Tory majorities.
And with a general election on the horizon, Sir Ed is also putting the party on a war footing, telling his parliamentary candidates to “get ready”. He said: “The Tories are in such a mess. I think the country desperately wants an election. Sunak might cling on, but he looks so weak”.
The ex-Coalition Cabinet minister ruled out any electoral pact with the Tories after the next general election, saying it “would be bizarre in the extreme”. “It won’t happen… I just want to be as clear as I can be to people: this Conservative government has to go. This Conservative government has to be thrown into opposition for as long as possible”.
But asked if would consider any pact with Labour if the party falls short of a working majority at the next election, he declined to rule it out. He said: “I’ve been in this game a long time and I’ve seen a lot of my predecessors have thought about what happens after an election. I have made a real thing of not doing that. Because our country demands we beat these Conservatives, I am only focused on that. I’m not going to be distracted by any of this stuff.”
But he faces a much closer electoral test in Mid-Bedfordshire - the seat vacated by the ex-Tory MP Nadine Dorries - on October 19. The Conservative vote share has plummeted, but there have been warnings Rishi Sunak could cling to the constituency due to the split anti-Tory vote, with both Labour and the Liberal Democrats pouring in resources.
Despite a recent poll putting the Liberal Democrats in third place - and Labour neck and neck with the Conservatives - Sir Ed isn’t stepping aside. He claimed his party is piling on votes in the rural seat, saying: “Labour can’t win this seat - that’s for sure. That’s what all our canvassing shows.”
“I am very optimistic about our chances and people will wake up on October 20 and they’ll either have a Conservative MP or a Liberal Democrat MP.”
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But in Tamworth - the seat of the former Tory MP Chris Pincher - where a by-election is happening on the same day, Sir Ed has a different message. “They [Labour] won Tamworth in ‘97. If they don’t win Tamworth on October 19 then there are going to be some serious questions.”
Asked whether the Liberal Democrats would plough fewer resources into Tamworth, he said: “Let me be clear - there are no pacts, there are no deals. What political parties do is like other people, they behave rationally. Where they think they’ve got some strength and they can win, they put resources.
“That is why we’ve been piling into Mid Bedfordshire. I think we can win Mid Bedfordshire. We will have a candidate in Tamworth, but we won’t put quite as much work in. It’s not one of our stronger areas but it’s right people should have the choice to vote Liberal Democrat if they want to vote Liberal Democrat”.
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