LABOUR will end the state pension triple lock to fund a National Care Service if the party wins the next election, Andy Burnham has announced.
The Prime Minister said that he state pension would rise by either 2.5% or in line with prices from 2030 and said the link to wages would be changed to save money.
Speaking at the Labour conference in Liverpool, Burnham said: "I’ll be honest, we promised in our manifesto to keep the triple lock unchanged throughout this Parliament. I will honour that promise. I will honour that promise and I will do more. That will take the state pension to a record high.
“From there, in April 2030, we will adjust it. The state pension will continue to rise every year at least by prices or 2.5%. And it will hold its value relative to earnings over time so that pensioners will always share in the rising prosperity of the nation.
“But this change will generate significant savings which we will use to build up our National Care Service. Some may not realise it but older people with nothing more than the state pension, or only a little more, can find themselves paying care changes today from that small income. Under my plan, this will no longer happen.”
Unveiling his plans for a National Care Service, free at the point of use, Burnham said it would be "a landmark policy, as significant as the creation of the NHS itself and utterly essential to securing its future”.
But the plans will only go ahead if Labour can form a government after the next General Election, which Burnham has said will come in 2029.
The Prime Minister said: "We will start laying the ground now for the National Care Service and introduce it in the next Parliament.”
It was not immediately clear whether the proposed National Care Service policy would apply to Scotland, where health policy is devolved to the Holyrood.
Elsewhere, Burnham said that GB Energy would create a new national grid in a bid to drive down energy costs.
He said: "A publicly-owned company that will challenge the private sector operators.
“It will increase competition, drive down costs and speed up connections."
Russell Borthwick, the chief executive of the Aberdeen and Grampian Chambers of Commerce, raised concerns about the proposals, which he said looked "like a very poor use of scarce public money".
He added: "There is private capital ready to invest in Britain’s grid from companies already operating at scale here in Scotland. The real barriers have been a glacial pace in the planning system and a lack of timely decision-making.
“Government should focus on fixing those problems rather than spending £4 billion creating a state-backed competitor in a market where industry is already getting on with the job.
“The bigger concern is what gets squeezed out. Great British Energy has a finite budget, and diverting such a large share of it into grid infrastructure risks starving nascent sectors like floating offshore wind of the support they need to build UK supply chains, manufacturing capacity and long-term jobs."
Graham Leadbitter, the SNP's energy spokesperson in Westminster, blasted the plan as "a new gimmick" which would see GB Energy "gutted" for funds.
He added: "It’s going Going Bust Energy. If we are expected to believe GB Grid will be any different then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
“It’s Scotland energy, it should be in Scotland’s hands no matter the GB badges that are slapped on these new vehicles, fundamentally we are talking about our resources.
“Resources which the people of Scotland see being syphoned off every day while our bills go through the roof."
Taking aim at Burnham's pledges to reform the regulation of public utilities such as water in England, Green leader Zack Polanski attacked Burnham's plans as "just tinkering".
He added: "We’ve had a Chancellor spending the week praising Rachel Reeves and talking like George Osborne on welfare cuts. We’ve had a Foreign Secretary who’s spent the week saying how badly wrong Labour got it on Gaza while locking pensioners up for saying so.
"It is disappointing that we have a country ready to break from the last 40 years, a Labour government with the majority to do it, and yet what we see are more half measures, reannouncements and tinkering.
"Some of the pledges are steps in the direction the Greens have been calling for, but it is clear that Labour needs the Greens to keep them in check everyday to push them towards the real transformation this country needs."
