Why Labour’s social care surprise matters

A much bigger story than Rachel Reeves cancelling the winter fuel payment is her announcement today that she is finally killing off the beleaguered cap on social care costs.

Reeves told the Commons that the Conservative government had not funded its reforms to social care, so they weren’t going to happen. She said:

Adult social care was also neglected by the previous government. The sector needs reform to improve care and to support staff. In the previous parliament, the government made costly commitments to introduce adult social care charging reforms, but they delayed them two years ago because they knew that local authorities were not ready and that their promises were not funded, so it will not be possible to take forward those charging reforms. This will save over £1 billion by the end of next year.

There were angry shouts of ‘outrageous!’ from MPs on the opposition benches, and Reeves responded that ‘I can understand why people, and members, are angry’.