Jeremy Corbyn [Simon Lamrock]

ISLINGTON North MP Jeremy Corbyn said he welcomed Andy Burnham’s proposed national care service plan – but warned pensioners should not be left to fund it.

In his speech at Labour Party conference on Tuesday, the new prime minister pledged care at free at the point of use, paid for in part by scrapping the full “triple-lock” on pensions from 2030.

Speaking to the Tribune outside the Whittington Hospital yesterday (Thursday), Mr Corbyn said: “The reality is that the care system is inadequate at the moment, and it’s the poorest families that pay for social care usually by a woman in the family giving up her job in order to care for somebody that’s in desperate need.

“Burnham is absolutely right to recognise that.

“He knows that it’s going to have to be funded somehow. Therefore, you’ve got to look at where you’re going to raise the money from. His proposal to take away one of the legs of the triple lock on the level of pension paid is really quite a dangerous move, because he’s saying that taking away that leg will help to fund a national care service.

“Well, if that is the case, that funding is going to be done at the expense of the pensioners that should be receiving increased pensions as the years go ahead.

“What he’s effectively saying is we’ve got an ageing population, so the ageing population can pay for the fact that they’re an ageing population.”

The “triple-lock” is a policy currently in place which guarantees the state pension increases according to the highest one of either inflation, average wage growth, or 2.5 per cent .

Mr Corbyn said funding for the pledged care service should “come out of general taxation and taxation on the wealthiest in our society”, adding: “[Burnham] is also arguing, as is the chancellor, that we should cut social spending in order to increase defence expenditure.

“How about this? A strategy for peace in order to cut defence expenditure.”