I get policy ideas from speaking to people in Greggs and pubs, Andy Burnham tells This Morning

Andy Burnham has said he often gets ideas from speaking to people in Greggs and pubs.

The Prime Minister told This Morning on STV that he is about to get around the country to “chat to people”.

“In August, I will get around the country actually, because people will perceive me as obviously spoken up for the North and Greater Manchester,” he said.

“I’m very proud of that. But you know, I see the same issues in all parts of the UK. So I’m going to be out in rural areas, coastal areas and in the summer in Wales, in Scotland, Northern Ireland.

“I’m just going to get around in about and just go to pubs and workplaces and just chat to people.

“I did my job as mayor of Greater Manchester like that, and I just would pick up a little thing that somebody would whisper to me in the queue at Greggs or somewhere else, you know, or the bar at the pub and just say, you should look at that, you know? And often I pick my ideas up like that as a politician.”

It comes as Burnham promised to reform social care to help “my dad and the millions like him” faced with the unfairness of the current system as he acknowledged tax hikes could be needed to pay for fundamental changes.

The Prime Minister, whose father has Alzheimer’s, said “difficult, difficult decisions” could be needed on tax but insisted fixing the current problems in social care in England could save the NHS billions of pounds a year.

Burnham said it was a “major dereliction of public duty” that successive governments had failed to address the crisis in social care.

The Prime Minister, who set out proposals for reform as health secretary in 2009, said the blame lies with “my generation of politicians” who had not confronted the problems posed by an ageing society.

During his speech, the Prime Minister:

– Said he had accelerated Baroness Louise Casey’s review of social care so it will report next year.

– Promised reforms to improve the “strength and the capability” of the social care workforce.

– Confirmed he would begin cross-party talks with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, insisting it was the “right thing to do” to try to find a consensus.

– Said in an “ideal world” people would not be forced to sell their homes to fund their care.

Commons Health and Social Care Committee chairwoman Layla Moran said “this time it needs to be different” after 22 previous attempts to reform the system.

“Getting this right speaks to what kind of society we want to be and I’m glad this Prime Minister is putting his political heft behind it,” the Liberal Democrat MP said.

Natasha Curry, deputy director of policy at the Nuffield Trust health think tank, said: “Getting the public onside through an honest conversation about the difficult choices ahead and reducing the inherent political jeopardy around reform will be essential if plans are to survive beyond the next election.

“Burnham has made a good call by not moving on to questions of tax and funding yet. We need to settle what we as a society want social care to do before deciding the fairest way to fund it.”