The Chancellor announced the 2020 Budget earlier this week, which was billed to dramatically boost public spending to bring the UK out of years of austerity. Much of the coverage was dominated by news that spending on high profile areas, such as the NHS and large scale infrastructure projects, would be boosted.
Social care funding - or a lack of it - has regularly made headlines over the past few years. In the lead up to the Budget, The i reminded readers that during the election campaign, Boris Johnson had said that “tackling the crisis in social care in the UK would be top of his list of priorities once in office.” It went on to state that the 2019 Conservative manifesto had pledged an additional £1bn of funding for the system, to be first introduced in April 2020.
However, Wednesday’s Budget appeared to fail to deliver on this promise, as The Independent reports that no extra funding was announced for social care, compared to big boosts to other sectors. In a BBC interview with John McDonnell, the Labour MP and Shadow Chancellor warned the government would be stepping into dangerous territory if they allowed the social care crisis to continue. The lack of social care funding also drew criticism from within the Conservative party, with the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt describing it as a “glaring omission”.
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