Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley joined Steve Brine in Winchester to focus on one of the hot topics of the campaign.
One of the biggest issues of this General Election campaign, both locally and nationally, is funding of care for the elderly. It regularly comes near the top of survey’s carried out by Prospective local MP Steve Brine and has been asked at many of the hustings he has taken part in over recent weeks.
Tony Blair famously pledged – to the 1997 Labour Party Conference – that people wouldn’t have to sell their home to pay for care when he said; ‘I don’t want my children brought up in a country where the only way pensioners can get long-term care is by selling their home’. “It is a good job therefore that the Blair’s spend so much time these days abroad”, says Steve Brine, “because 13 years later that is exactly what is still happening.”
Steve welcomed Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley to Otterbourne (between Winchester and Chandler’s Ford) on Thursday 29 April and the pair visited the excellent Brendon Care home Old Parsonage Court. They chatted with residents about many issues (including the final debate of the night before) and of course, the NHS as well as long-term provision.
A Conservative Government will introduce a new, voluntary scheme with a one-off joining fee of £8,000, paid at the age of 65, in return for a guarantee that all fees for permanent residential care would be waived – for life. This is excellent value and a new responsible deal between citizen and government. As well as allowing people to join the scheme as they reach 65, they will open the scheme to existing over-65s for a fixed ‘window’ of time so everyone has the opportunity to benefit.
Steve Brine adds; “Many people will know, from my emails and my literature during the three and-a-half years I have been the Prospective Winchester MP, that the NHS is my personal priority. That means our local hospitals, GP surgeries and dentists but it also means long-term care for the elderly so I was pleased to welcome Andrew Lansley back to this constituency and to focus on the subject. Our proposals represent a strong change of direction from the current Government because they are a partnership between citizen and state. They will not solve every problem, we know that, but I think they are a positive step forward.”
Pictured; Steve Brine and Andrew Lansley chatting with residents at Old Parsonage Court.
More information …
Watch Steve Brine and Andrew Lansley in conversation courtesy of Steve Brine TV