PM candidates on social care: Rory Stewart calls fixing care an 'unfinished revolution'

As the 10-strong Tory race for the next Prime Minister gets underway with much talk about Brexit, candidate Rory Stewart has said the “great unfinished revolution” of sorting out social care is overdue.

'Great unfinished revolution'

International Development Secretary Rory Stewart said: “For weeks now, I’ve been travelling around this extraordinary country.

“And in every place the same thing…people coming up to me talking about disability, talking about GP surgeries, talking about how to transform their place into somewhere they and their children would want to live.

“My constituents should not, when visiting a dying parent in hospital have to come out and get a hospital car parking ticket on their car. People should not be waiting four weeks for a GP surgery.

“But it is also talking about the great unfinished revolution of our society, sorting out social care for the poor and vulnerable elderly. Making sure that as we all get older, and our society will be getting older, we are looked after with dignity and with pride.”

Health secretary Matt Hancock, who has been in post since 2018, has now promised to put £3.5 billion into the UK’s “collapsed” social care system, if he is made Prime Minister.

Some could argue that like Matt Hancock, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s past record as health secretary may be enough to see what they can and cannot do for social care.

Fellow PM candidate and former government whip Mark Harper says he wants the party to work on priorities other than Brexit. He says he is embarrassed the government repeatedly delayed the social care green paper.

Dominic Raab will “drive forward” with social care cap

Older people make up more than half of Conservative Party members, which is a good enough reason for candidates for Conservative leader and next PM to highlight social care.

Ex-Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has said the Tories must “drive forward, not retreat” on social care reform.

Mr Raab has said a new social care system should be based on Andrew Dilnot’s proposals for a cap on each person's total care costs.

Michael Gove speech: ‘Terrible shadow of dementia’

Environment Secretary Michael Gove’s campaign speech for the top job revealed: ”I will introduce a system of social care of insurance supported by the state, which will ensure that never again are people in fear that as the terrible shadow of dementia falls on their relatives’ lives that they may lose their home and their future may be uncertain.

“Those who’ve given so much for our country deserve security at the end of their lives.”

Ex-Foreign secretary Boris Johnson may be too busy wooing fellow MPs instead of revealing his plans for social care but his parliamentary record reveals he almost always votes against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability.

To date it remains unclear what the social care ambitions are of Boris Johnson, the Home Secretary Sajid Javid, former leader of the house Andrea Leadsom and former Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey.

The PM candidates’ policies on health and social care will be discussed as all candidates in the race by mid-June will be invited to a televised event on BBC One. The final two candidates will go head-to-head in a televised Question Time Special.