Angry Tories blast ‘incompetent’ Theresa May for ‘U-Turn’ on capping care costs – but the PM’s still showing metal
One academic branded the change to Tory plan to address care cost crisis 'the biggest U-turn in 20 General Elections'
TORY MPs last night accused Theresa May of looking “incompetent” for watering down her flagship manifesto policy on social care.
The PM had unveiled a bold plan to tackle the ballooning cost of the ageing population by asking the more well-off to foot their own bills.
At the same time, anyone with under £100,000 in assets would be protected from having to pay anything at all.
But the major overhaul, revealed five days ago, sparked an impassioned debate and was branded a Dementia Tax by Labour and the Lib Dems.
Battered by the attacks, the “panicked” Tory leader yesterday hurriedly announced an extra element to her plan — a cap on how much every OAP has to pay before the state picks up the rest of the tab.
The major wobble left her enduring her hardest day in the election campaign so far.
Insisting the plans were still to be fully fleshed out after the election, Mrs May announced: “That consultation will include an absolute limit on the amount people have to pay for their care costs.”
Despite the major change, senior Tory aides insisted it was not a U-turn. Mrs May argued “nothing has changed” because the core principles of her overhaul remained.
Instead, the furious PM heaped all the blame for her clarification on false claims by the Labour leader.
Mrs May, wearing a chunky neck chain, bracelet and steel toe caps on a day of bruising political encounters, said: “Since my manifesto was published, the proposals have been subject to fake claims made by Jeremy Corbyn.
“The only things he has left to offer in this campaign is fear and scaremongering.
“Jeremy Corbyn wants to sneak into No10 by playing on the fears of older people.”
The PM added: “Our social care system will collapse unless we make some important decisions now about how we fund it. We are the only party in this election prepared to face up to the reality of our ageing society and offer a long-term solution.”
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The PM insisted ministers would get “the views of charities, the views of others” first.
But her move significantly hikes the costs of the new policy to the taxpayer.
Former Treasury chief Lord Macpherson was among several economists to warn it would mean “higher spending and higher taxes”.
Veteran elections academic Sir David Butler even dubbed it the biggest U-turn “in the 20 general election campaigns I’ve followed”.
It also left Tory MPs split down the middle. While some told of their relief after taking a pummelling on doorsteps over the policy, others insisted the climbdown was not necessary.
One Tory MP said he was “more bothered how incompetent she and her team look”.
A minister said: “They panicked. It created a great fuss but won’t have any long-term effect.”
Another frustrated Tory MP added: “We didn’t have to do this. People were beginning to understand what the policy was all about”. Mrs May’s claims of no change were also undermined when it emerged her ministers ruled out a cap as the manifesto was launched.
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The Tories had promised a limit during the 2015 election. But only last Thursday, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt had said: “We’re being completely explicit that we’re dropping it.”
Labour leaped on the PM’s wobble and mocked her with her own campaign catchphrase. Election co-ordinator Ian Lavery said: “Strong and stable Prime Minister? More like a weak and wobbly one.”
The Lib Dems unveiled figures families could still be hit hard even with a cap.
The embarrassing climbdown overshadowed Mrs May’s launch of the Tories’ Welsh manifesto in Wrexham, North Wales. She was hoping to refocus the campaign back on Brexit after the backlash over social care, blamed for halving her poll lead over Labour.
It was her latest foray into Labour territory in her bid to turn swathes of Britain blue.
But a poll last night suggested the Tories’ hopes of replacing Labour as the biggest party in Wales were fading.