Robert Jenrick has called on Prime Minister Andy Burnham to rule out future tax rises to fund adult social care reform in England, saying the cost should instead come from cutting foreign aid and benefit payments for migrants.

Jenrick, Reform UK's Treasury spokesman and a former Conservative minister, made the remarks at a press conference on 30 July 2026. He urged Burnham to rule out what he called a universal "death tax" BBC News. The Daily Express reported that Jenrick vowed Reform UK would fight any such levy Daily Express.

The phrase carries political history. Burnham was health secretary under Gordon Brown, whose government proposed a compulsory levy that could be deferred until after death. The Conservatives at the time labelled it a "death tax" BBC News. Burnham has said those 2009 proposals were designed to stop people having to sell their homes to pay for care, and he has not mentioned introducing an adult social care levy in that form BBC News.

Jenrick also said Reform would stop visas for overseas care workers in order to employ more British citizens. The BBC notes that Reform does not have a designated health spokesperson, leaving Jenrick, who holds the Treasury brief, to wade directly into the social care debate BBC News. BBC Breakfast posted a video clip of his comments on Facebook, captioned with his quote: "We musn't raid people's savings to solve this problem" BBC Breakfast, Facebook.

Burnham has said fixing social care is a top priority and has sped up a review of the system by Baroness Casey, now due to be published next summer. He told the BBC that the NHS "will collapse" without social care reform BBC News. The prime minister said he wanted to extract more from existing budgets "before we talk about tax rises" and pledged to work with Chancellor John Healey to boost care worker pay and training, "fully funded" from existing budgets BBC News.

The Conservative Party is pressing from another direction. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch wrote to Burnham urging him to rule out tax rises and further borrowing for social care, calling his plans a "spending spree" Peeblesshire News. Burnham held cross-party talks on social care with Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey and shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew, but Reform and the Green Party were not invited BBC News.

The stakes are structural. In England and Northern Ireland, people with savings over £23,250 are not entitled to council help with care costs, and social care is not free at the point of use, unlike the NHS BBC News. Social care policy is devolved, meaning Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each operate their own frameworks. The £23,250 threshold applies in England and Northern Ireland.

The broader context here is the reactivation of a policy fault line that has defeated successive governments for the better part of two decades. Burnham's personal history with the "death tax" label, dating to his time as health secretary under Brown, gives Jenrick's framing a particular sharpness. The Conservatives deployed the phrase successfully in opposition then; Reform UK is now reaching for the same weapon, betting that public appetite for any new levy remains low.

What has shifted is the party configuration. Burnham's decision to invite Davey and the Conservative shadow health secretary to cross-party talks, while excluding Reform and the Greens, signals an attempt to build a centrist coalition for reform and to isolate Reform on the flank. Whether that calculation holds will depend heavily on what Baroness Casey's review concludes next summer and on whether Burnham can credibly show that existing budgets can be stretched far enough to avoid the tax rises he has not yet ruled out.