Jeremy Hunt put vital social care reforms on hold – and failed Britain’s most vulnerable people

Jeremy Hunt delivers his autumn statement in the House of Commons, 17 November 2022. Photograph: Jessica Taylor/Reuters

Dementia. Chronic lung disease or arthritis. Loss of mobility, sight, hearing. These are all things that could hit any of us, make us vulnerable and require compassion and social care. The chancellor said his statement on Thursday was about protecting vulnerable people and displaying the value of compassion. So how can a part of that statement have been yet another occasion when social care has been put at the bottom of the list of priorities?

I chaired the commission appointed by the coalition government in 2010 to suggest a way forward. My name was read out in Jeremy Hunt’s statement on Thursday, which breached the 2019 manifesto promise to “fix social care” by delaying the improved funding system I recommended from October 2023 to a (post-general election) date of October 2025.