Theresa May has been accused of “chaos, confusion and indecision” after announcing a U-turn on her plans to make people pay more for social care just days after they were first announced.



The prime minister battled throughout Monday to defend her decision to put in place an “absolute limit” on the amount that people would have to pay despite no mention of the idea in her party’s manifesto, published on Thursday.

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She also failed to set out the level at which the cap could be set, with Tory sources making clear there would be no further details before the general election.

In a combative primetime BBC1 interview with Andrew Neil, May insisted the shift in position had not been driven by enduring days of backlash against proposals, dubbed a “dementia tax”, to ask the elderly to contribute more towards care.

Instead, she hit out at the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, accusing him of trying “to sneak into No 10 by playing on the fears of older and vulnerable people” – and said the plan was always to flesh out the policy through a government green paper.

“Nothing has changed from the principles on social care policy that we set out on our manifesto,” May said, arguing that urgent action was needed because of the ageing population. “Just one figure: in 10 years’ time, there will be 2 million more people over the age of 75. Now, our social care system will collapse if we don’t do anything about it.”

Under the Tory proposals, people needing social care at home would have to pay for it until the value of their assets – including their property – reached £100,000. The party also promised that a family home would never need to be sold in a person’s lifetime, with the costs, initially uncapped, instead recouped after death.

May added that this key plank of the Tory social care policy as well as the other controversial decision to limit winter fuel allowance to the poorest would remain in place.

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“I’m not going to bury my head in the sand, I’m not going to play politics with it, which is what Jeremy Corbyn is doing,” she told Neil about the controversial decisions.

May insisted the fresh proposal for a cap, which came after days of pressure from Labour and the Liberal Democrats and private concerns from Conservative MPs about the social care package, was not a U-turn but a clarification. “We have not rewritten the manifesto. The principles on which we have based our social care policy remain absolutely the same,” she said.

However, the idea of a cap on care costs – as recommended by Sir Andrew Dilnot following a major inquiry for the previous coalition government – was explicitly rejected in both the Tory manifesto and a briefing to journalists about the policy.

Moreover, the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said last week his party was “being completely explicit in our manifesto that we’re dropping [the cap]”, and cabinet ministers Damian Green and Boris Johnson defended the social care package in broadcast interviews on Sunday.

The turnaround comes after the government’s controversial U-turn earlier this year over a budget proposal to raise national insurance for the self-employed and May’s change of heart over holding an early general election.

Labour’s Barbara Keeley, the shadow social care minister, told the Guardian: “What people need is certainty, so they can know how their future care needs will be met. What the Tories are delivering is chaos, confusion and indecision over the funding of care. The Tories were going to introduce a cap on care costs in April 2016, then in April 2020 and now they are talking of a green paper, which is another delaying tactic.”

The Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, said: “As Theresa May has made clear herself, nothing has changed and her heartless dementia tax remains in place. This is a cold and calculated attempt to pull the wool over people’s eyes.”

Conservative sources argued that the new policy was different to Dilnot’s recommendation, which paid for a cap through general taxation, a move they said was not fair for “ordinary working families”. Instead, this policy will use money raised from the new means tests for social care and winter fuel allowance to fund an upper limit.

The original policy in the manifesto caused anger because payments after death could eat into the inheritance of offspring whose parents were unlucky enough to suffer from a condition – such as dementia – in which reliance on social care is inevitable. The phrase “dementia tax” was used to highlight the difference in care for those reliant on social care with conditions such as Alzheimer’s and those with illnesses such as cancer that qualify for NHS treatment.

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Dilnot himself said it was “perfectly reasonable” to charge people with bigger houses higher inheritance tax, but there was a moral case for a cap when it came to social care costs which can run into the tens of thousands or more. “What does not seem to be a reasonable position is that we should have an inheritance tax that’s much higher if you happen to be one of the one people in 10 who’s unlucky enough to have dementia,” he told Sky News.

He welcomed the move by the Tories, saying it would provide “a great deal of reassurance to people” but urged the government not to set the cap much higher than the £72,000 planned by David Cameron’s government.

Earlier, the prime minister used a speech to launch the Tory Welsh manifesto in Wrexham to reveal her party’s change of heart. “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 are fake claims, fear and scaremongering,” she said.



“So I want to make a further point clear. This manifesto says that we will come forward with a consultation paper, a government green paper. And that consultation will include an absolute limit on the amount people have to pay for their care costs.”

May immediately faced a string of difficult questions from reporters, with one saying the announcement amounted to a “manifesto of chaos”. A testy prime minister responded by insisting that there was always going to be a consultation and the “basic principles” of the policy were unchanged.

“Nothing has changed, nothing has changed,” she added tersely, raising her voice when asked towards the end of the session if anything else in the Tory manifesto was likely to be altered. May accused a Guardian journalist of borrowing a term from the Labour party by using “dementia tax” in a question.

Corbyn said the Tories had not given any level for the cap. “They haven’t explained to the millions of people, who are desperately worried at the moment about what kind of care they are going to get in the future, desperately worried for children as well about how their parents are going to be looked after,” he said.</s>Gresford — British Prime Minister Theresa May amended an unpopular campaign proposal on Monday for elderly care just days after unveiling it, prompting accusations that she could not be relied upon in Brexit negotiations.

She came under fire following a speech in Wales, where her Conservatives are hoping to make historic gains against the opposition Labour party in the June 8 general election.

In the speech she announced a cap on the amount people would be asked to pay, which was in response to a backlash against proposals in her party’s manifesto on paying for elderly care. "We are proposing the right funding model for social care. We will make sure there’s an absolute limit on what people need to pay," she told supporters in Gresford, Wales. May said "nothing has changed" when questioned by journalists on the announcement.

The initial proposal did not include an upper limit, leaving it open to accusations that people could be forced to use their assets to pay for care. She did not detail how much the limit on elderly care would be.

Labour said her change of heart had thrown her campaign into "chaos and confusion", just four days after the Conservative Party manifesto was published.

"You can’t trust the Tories — if this is how they handle their own manifesto, how will they cope with the Brexit negotiations?" said Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s election co-ordinator.</s>The Conservatives have bought ads on search engine giant Google in a bid to tackle the backlash the party is facing over its so called "dementia tax".

The paid link at the top of "dementia tax" search results directs voters to the "real facts" on the Tory Party website.

The row comes after Prime Minister Theresa May's manifesto said the elderly would have to pay for their own social care in England with their assets.

The policy would allow the pensioners to keep no more than £100,000 ($129,693)

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron is writing to key organisations about the plan, including former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron who is President of Alzheimer's Research UK.

"Every elderly person that needs care should receive it in the best place for them and not be fearful of those mounting, limitless costs," he said.

"I am determined that we ensure that Theresa May drops the so-called 'dementia tax' and implement a cap on the cost of care.

"Caring for our elderly must be above party politics and that is why I want to urge anyone who opposes the Conservatives' plans to come together to stop it.

"We must resist this plan and challenge would-be Conservative MPs to reject and stop it."

The Conservatives have taken a hit in the opinion polls since the publication of their manifesto. The latest Survation poll, of more than 1,000 people between 19 and 20 May, put the Tories on 43% (-5), Labour on 34% (+4), Liberal Democrats on 8% (unchanged) and Ukip on 4% (unchanged).</s>Theresa May was forced to backtrack on a central part of her policy manifesto on Monday, promising to cap the costs of social care for the elderly in a bid to contain a growing backlash against what's already been dubbed her "dementia tax".



Just four days after the policy was announced, the prime minister responded to a weekend of negative headlines and narrowing opinion polls by announcing that a consultation on the plans would include an "absolute limit" on what people had to pay for their social care. May repeatedly insisted this was merely a "clarification" to the original proposal, even though the cap did not appear in the manifesto.

Nothing has changed,” the prime minister said. “Nothing has changed. We are offering a long-term solution for the sustainability of social care for the future.”



On the defensive for the first time since calling the election a month ago, the Conservative leader appeared peevish at a speaking event in Wrexham, a Tory target seat, as she batted away persistent questions from reporters, about whether she had undermined her own claim to provide "strong and stable leadership".

May sought to pin the reversal on Jeremy Corbyn, accusing the Labour leader of making “fake claims” about her social care plans. Labour were falsely claiming that “families would lose their homes” as a result of the social care reform, and she was setting the record straight by clarifying how it would work, the prime minister insisted.



Labour did jump on the policy after Thursday, portraying it in advertisements, social media postings and interviews as part of a three-pronged attack on pensioners — along with the means-testing of winter fuel allowances and the end to the "triple lock" on state pensions. But the phrase "dementia tax" appears not to have originated with Labour. Fraser Nelson, editor of the Spectator, the conservative magazine, said it was one of his writers, Will Heaven, a former Ministry of Justice speechwriter, who coined the term.

In her most bruising press conference since the campaign began, May was accused by journalists of cynically backtracking after seeing that the policy had gone down poorly with elderly voters.

One described May's policy platform as a "manifesto of chaos". Another asked if she had "buckled under pressure", and suggested May was now introducing a cap in a "cynical attempt to stop voters leaving you in droves".

Michael Crick, of Channel 4 News, said it was unprecedented for a political party to do a U-turn on its manifesto before an election. Crick contrasted May with Margaret Thatcher, who famously declared she was "not for turning".

Clearly irritated by the line of questioning, May shook her head repeatedly and insisted the substance of the policy remained exactly the same — she was merely issuing a clarification.

In their manifesto, the Conservatives said they would require individuals who need care to pay for it from the value of their home, with only the last £100,000 protected. The policy sparked a backlash over the weekend, with anecdotal evidence suggesting it had gone down badly with voters on the doorstep in the Conservatives’ traditional heartlands.

Opinion polls taken since the manifesto launch in Thursday showed Labour closing the gap, in some polls to within 9 points, although the Conservatives still had a healthy lead. Labour, the Liberal Democrats and UKIP jumped on the policy, and the term “dementia tax” began to stick. The Bow Group, a Conservative-supporting think tank, described it as “the biggest stealth tax in history” and predicted there would be a huge backlash from Tory voters when they realised the implications of the policy.

Damian Green, the work and pensions secretary, was sent out on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday to defend the policy, insisting that the Conservatives would stick to it. He did not mention that the changes would be accompanied by a cap on absolute costs.

By mid-Monday morning it was clear that party leaders were rattled by the reaction. News of a reversal emerged from a source that will have irritated May: a tweet by George Osborne, the former chancellor, whom she sacked from cabinet and is now editor of the Evening Standard newspaper.

“U-turn coming on social care,” Osborne tweeted. “There will be a cap. Read today’s @EveningStandard for the details.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May faces backlash after accusations emerge that the Conservatives allegedly planned on reducing social welfare spending.