Yvette Cooper tells Labour conference ‘Sure Start’s back’ as she expands Healthy Babies programme, UK politics live
Health secretary also announced the government was setting up collective pension scheme for workers in care sector Andy Burnham has suggested that it would not be legitimate for a party to form a majority government with less than 30% of the vote. In his Today interview, asked why he wanted electoral reform and a move towards proportional representation, Burnham replied: I found it better being elected under a different system as mayor of Greater Manchester, where people had one or two, they could put that on the ballot paper. Because you had a reason to stop on every doorstep and chat to peop
Sharon Graham , the Unite general secretary, said earlier this week that getting rid of the pensions triple lock to help fund social care reform would be “electoral suicide” .
This morning YouGov has published polling suggesting that she might be wrong. It suggests the voters support Burnham’s plan by 48% to 28%.
When people are asked in isolation if they support setting up a National Care Service, they were overwhelmingly in favour, by 74% to 11%.
YouGov also found that, when asked in isolation if they would back turning the triple lock into a double lock (by removing the earnings link), respondents were also in favour of that too, by 43% to 30%.
(In fact, Burnham’s proposal is more generous than a simply reversion to a double lock, see 8.45am .)
When YouGov put the two proposals together, and described them as Burnham’s plan, getting rid of the triple lock in its current form became more popular.
What people tell pollsters about a policy after it has just been announced may bear little resemblance to how they feel about it by the time it gets implemented. But these findings suggest Burnham is well placed to win the public argument on the merits of his policy.
When Rachel Reeves announced she was cutting the winter fuel payments in 2024, early polling showed that people opposed the move, and it was particularly unpopular with pensioners.
