Theresa May was forced to backtrack on a central part of her policy manifesto on Monday, promising to cap the costs of social care for the elderly in a bid to contain a growing backlash against what's already been dubbed her "dementia tax".



Just four days after the policy was announced, the prime minister responded to a weekend of negative headlines and narrowing opinion polls by announcing that a consultation on the plans would include an "absolute limit" on what people had to pay for their social care. May repeatedly insisted this was merely a "clarification" to the original proposal, even though the cap did not appear in the manifesto.

Nothing has changed,” the prime minister said. “Nothing has changed. We are offering a long-term solution for the sustainability of social care for the future.”



On the defensive for the first time since calling the election a month ago, the Conservative leader appeared peevish at a speaking event in Wrexham, a Tory target seat, as she batted away persistent questions from reporters, about whether she had undermined her own claim to provide "strong and stable leadership".

May sought to pin the reversal on Jeremy Corbyn, accusing the Labour leader of making “fake claims” about her social care plans. Labour were falsely claiming that “families would lose their homes” as a result of the social care reform, and she was setting the record straight by clarifying how it would work, the prime minister insisted.



Labour did jump on the policy after Thursday, portraying it in advertisements, social media postings and interviews as part of a three-pronged attack on pensioners — along with the means-testing of winter fuel allowances and the end to the "triple lock" on state pensions. But the phrase "dementia tax" appears not to have originated with Labour. Fraser Nelson, editor of the Spectator, the conservative magazine, said it was one of his writers, Will Heaven, a former Ministry of Justice speechwriter, who coined the term.

In her most bruising press conference since the campaign began, May was accused by journalists of cynically backtracking after seeing that the policy had gone down poorly with elderly voters.

One described May's policy platform as a "manifesto of chaos". Another asked if she had "buckled under pressure", and suggested May was now introducing a cap in a "cynical attempt to stop voters leaving you in droves".

Michael Crick, of Channel 4 News, said it was unprecedented for a political party to do a U-turn on its manifesto before an election. Crick contrasted May with Margaret Thatcher, who famously declared she was "not for turning".

Clearly irritated by the line of questioning, May shook her head repeatedly and insisted the substance of the policy remained exactly the same — she was merely issuing a clarification.

In their manifesto, the Conservatives said they would require individuals who need care to pay for it from the value of their home, with only the last £100,000 protected. The policy sparked a backlash over the weekend, with anecdotal evidence suggesting it had gone down badly with voters on the doorstep in the Conservatives’ traditional heartlands.

Opinion polls taken since the manifesto launch in Thursday showed Labour closing the gap, in some polls to within 9 points, although the Conservatives still had a healthy lead. Labour, the Liberal Democrats and UKIP jumped on the policy, and the term “dementia tax” began to stick. The Bow Group, a Conservative-supporting think tank, described it as “the biggest stealth tax in history” and predicted there would be a huge backlash from Tory voters when they realised the implications of the policy.

Damian Green, the work and pensions secretary, was sent out on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday to defend the policy, insisting that the Conservatives would stick to it. He did not mention that the changes would be accompanied by a cap on absolute costs.

By mid-Monday morning it was clear that party leaders were rattled by the reaction. News of a reversal emerged from a source that will have irritated May: a tweet by George Osborne, the former chancellor, whom she sacked from cabinet and is now editor of the Evening Standard newspaper.

“U-turn coming on social care,” Osborne tweeted. “There will be a cap. Read today’s @EveningStandard for the details.” </s> Theresa May has been accused of “chaos, confusion and indecision” after announcing a U-turn on her plans to make people pay more for social care just days after they were first announced.



The prime minister battled throughout Monday to defend her decision to put in place an “absolute limit” on the amount that people would have to pay despite no mention of the idea in her party’s manifesto, published on Thursday.

Theresa May's responses to Andrew Neil's five toughest questions Read more

She also failed to set out the level at which the cap could be set, with Tory sources making clear there would be no further details before the general election.

In a combative primetime BBC1 interview with Andrew Neil, May insisted the shift in position had not been driven by enduring days of backlash against proposals, dubbed a “dementia tax”, to ask the elderly to contribute more towards care.

Instead, she hit out at the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, accusing him of trying “to sneak into No 10 by playing on the fears of older and vulnerable people” – and said the plan was always to flesh out the policy through a government green paper.

“Nothing has changed from the principles on social care policy that we set out on our manifesto,” May said, arguing that urgent action was needed because of the ageing population. “Just one figure: in 10 years’ time, there will be 2 million more people over the age of 75. Now, our social care system will collapse if we don’t do anything about it.”

Under the Tory proposals, people needing social care at home would have to pay for it until the value of their assets – including their property – reached £100,000. The party also promised that a family home would never need to be sold in a person’s lifetime, with the costs, initially uncapped, instead recouped after death.

May added that this key plank of the Tory social care policy as well as the other controversial decision to limit winter fuel allowance to the poorest would remain in place.

Team May takes a hit to dampen 'dementia tax' backlash Read more

“I’m not going to bury my head in the sand, I’m not going to play politics with it, which is what Jeremy Corbyn is doing,” she told Neil about the controversial decisions.

May insisted the fresh proposal for a cap, which came after days of pressure from Labour and the Liberal Democrats and private concerns from Conservative MPs about the social care package, was not a U-turn but a clarification. “We have not rewritten the manifesto. The principles on which we have based our social care policy remain absolutely the same,” she said.

However, the idea of a cap on care costs – as recommended by Sir Andrew Dilnot following a major inquiry for the previous coalition government – was explicitly rejected in both the Tory manifesto and a briefing to journalists about the policy.

Moreover, the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said last week his party was “being completely explicit in our manifesto that we’re dropping [the cap]”, and cabinet ministers Damian Green and Boris Johnson defended the social care package in broadcast interviews on Sunday.

The turnaround comes after the government’s controversial U-turn earlier this year over a budget proposal to raise national insurance for the self-employed and May’s change of heart over holding an early general election.

Labour’s Barbara Keeley, the shadow social care minister, told the Guardian: “What people need is certainty, so they can know how their future care needs will be met. What the Tories are delivering is chaos, confusion and indecision over the funding of care. The Tories were going to introduce a cap on care costs in April 2016, then in April 2020 and now they are talking of a green paper, which is another delaying tactic.”

The Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, said: “As Theresa May has made clear herself, nothing has changed and her heartless dementia tax remains in place. This is a cold and calculated attempt to pull the wool over people’s eyes.”

Conservative sources argued that the new policy was different to Dilnot’s recommendation, which paid for a cap through general taxation, a move they said was not fair for “ordinary working families”. Instead, this policy will use money raised from the new means tests for social care and winter fuel allowance to fund an upper limit.

The original policy in the manifesto caused anger because payments after death could eat into the inheritance of offspring whose parents were unlucky enough to suffer from a condition – such as dementia – in which reliance on social care is inevitable. The phrase “dementia tax” was used to highlight the difference in care for those reliant on social care with conditions such as Alzheimer’s and those with illnesses such as cancer that qualify for NHS treatment.

The Guardian view on the social care debacle: weak and wobbly | Editorial Read more

Dilnot himself said it was “perfectly reasonable” to charge people with bigger houses higher inheritance tax, but there was a moral case for a cap when it came to social care costs which can run into the tens of thousands or more. “What does not seem to be a reasonable position is that we should have an inheritance tax that’s much higher if you happen to be one of the one people in 10 who’s unlucky enough to have dementia,” he told Sky News.

He welcomed the move by the Tories, saying it would provide “a great deal of reassurance to people” but urged the government not to set the cap much higher than the £72,000 planned by David Cameron’s government.

Earlier, the prime minister used a speech to launch the Tory Welsh manifesto in Wrexham to reveal her party’s change of heart. “Since my manifesto was published, the proposals have been subject to fake claims made by Jeremy Corbyn. The only things he has left to offer in this campaign are fake claims, fear and scaremongering,” she said.



“So I want to make a further point clear. This manifesto says that we will come forward with a consultation paper, a government green paper. And that consultation will include an absolute limit on the amount people have to pay for their care costs.”

May immediately faced a string of difficult questions from reporters, with one saying the announcement amounted to a “manifesto of chaos”. A testy prime minister responded by insisting that there was always going to be a consultation and the “basic principles” of the policy were unchanged.

“Nothing has changed, nothing has changed,” she added tersely, raising her voice when asked towards the end of the session if anything else in the Tory manifesto was likely to be altered. May accused a Guardian journalist of borrowing a term from the Labour party by using “dementia tax” in a question.

Corbyn said the Tories had not given any level for the cap. “They haven’t explained to the millions of people, who are desperately worried at the moment about what kind of care they are going to get in the future, desperately worried for children as well about how their parents are going to be looked after,” he said. </s> LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May slapped down her foreign minister on Tuesday after he demanded more funding for Britain’s public health service, telling him any discussion of money saved from Brexit should be kept private.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May walks through the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust's (WWT) grounds ahead of a speech to launch the government's environment plan at the London Wetland Centre in west London, Britain, January 11, 2018. REUTERS/Dan Kitwood/Pool/Files

Boris Johnson, whose promises that Britain’s departure from the European Union would boost funds for the National Health Service helped persuade many voters to back Brexit, raised his demands at a regular meeting of her top ministers after publicly calling for an extra 100 million pounds ($140 million) a week.

But the response was swift. May, trying to reassert her authority, said any money saved from Brexit would be spent on her priorities, including health, and that ministers should not air discussions outside her cabinet meetings.

“The prime minister and a large number of cabinet ministers made the point that cabinet discussions should take place in private,” her spokesman told reporters, describing the hour-long discussion on the NHS as “constructive”.

“As regards the future, and how the return of any EU contribution would be spent, the prime minister reminded cabinet that the government has consistently said that we will spend money on our priorities such as housing, schools and the NHS.”

May is under pressure over the state of the health service from the opposition Labour Party, which says healthcare is being put “recklessly” at risk by ministers unable to tackle bed shortages and thousands of cancelled operations.

Under fire from some lawmakers in her own party for lacking direction on some of the most pressing concerns in Britain, May is also trying to keep the warring factions of her cabinet of top ministers united as she negotiates Brexit.

But divisions over the so-called Brexit dividend - the funds that will be freed up when Britain stops paying into EU coffers - are deepening, with the ministers for health, education and defence and others bidding for more funds for their departments.

“DULL DULL DULL”

Shortly after Johnson made his demand, finance minister Philip Hammond fought back by saying he had already increased payments to the NHS. May has repeatedly said that funding is at record levels.

“Mr Johnson is the foreign secretary,” Hammond told reporters in Brussels.

“I gave the health secretary an extra 6 billion pounds at the recent budget and we’ll look at departmental allocations again at the spending review when that takes place.”

The row is yet another headache for May, whose weakness since losing her party’s majority at an election last June was underlined by a botched reshuffle of her top team of ministers earlier this month.

With the Conservatives increasingly concerned that Labour is setting the political agenda in Britain by focusing on health, housing and education, many members of the ruling party say it needs to show more clearly what they hold to be the benefits of Brexit.

Johnson and other Brexit supporters said during the campaign for the 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union that Britain pays 350 million pounds a week to the bloc and promised to spend the money on the NHS instead if Britain voted to leave.

The figure was challenged by critics who said it did not rerlect Britain’s rebate and payments made into Britain by the EU.

Mindful of that promise, some Conservatives are calling for the government to increase funding.

Britian's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson arrives at the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Security and Stability on the Korean Peninsula in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, January 16, 2018. REUTERS/Ben Nelms/Files

“We have to deliver Brexit and deliver for the NHS,” Andrew Bridgen, a pro-Brexit lawmaker, told Reuters.

Others went further, saying May had to do a lot more to win over younger voters and challenge Labour’s leftist leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has a loyal following in many cities.

“They must have really sound reasons to vote Conservative. We really need to get on with this #wherestheboldandbrave sofaritsdulldulldull,” Conservative lawmaker Nicholas Soames said on Twitter. </s> Gresford — British Prime Minister Theresa May amended an unpopular campaign proposal on Monday for elderly care just days after unveiling it, prompting accusations that she could not be relied upon in Brexit negotiations.

She came under fire following a speech in Wales, where her Conservatives are hoping to make historic gains against the opposition Labour party in the June 8 general election.

In the speech she announced a cap on the amount people would be asked to pay, which was in response to a backlash against proposals in her party’s manifesto on paying for elderly care. "We are proposing the right funding model for social care. We will make sure there’s an absolute limit on what people need to pay," she told supporters in Gresford, Wales. May said "nothing has changed" when questioned by journalists on the announcement.

The initial proposal did not include an upper limit, leaving it open to accusations that people could be forced to use their assets to pay for care. She did not detail how much the limit on elderly care would be.

Labour said her change of heart had thrown her campaign into "chaos and confusion", just four days after the Conservative Party manifesto was published.

"You can’t trust the Tories — if this is how they handle their own manifesto, how will they cope with the Brexit negotiations?" said Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s election co-ordinator. </s> London: Britain's interior minister Amber Rudd resigned on Sunday over an illegal immigration policy controversy, in a bitter blow to Prime Minister Theresa May days before local elections.

Rudd stood down amid claims she mislead lawmakers on whether her department held targets for removing illegal immigrants in Britain.

"The prime minister has tonight accepted the resignation of the home secretary," said a spokesman for May's office.

Rudd telephoned May to inform her of the decision following days of intensifying pressure over the immigration issue and increasing calls for her to quit.

That had followed weeks of scrutiny of her handling of another Home Office scandal: the targeting of the so-called Windrush generation.

Commonwealth citizens primarily from the Caribbean who came to Britain in the post-World War II decades had been wrongly threatened with deportation, provoking an outcry when it emerged earlier this month.

Their erroneous targeting stemmed from a "hostile environment" immigration policy pioneered by May when she was interior minister between 2010 and 2016, and then continued by Rudd.

The opposition Labour Party had accused Rudd of incompetence and being a "human shield" for May.

"This was inevitable, the only surprise is that it took so long," said shadow interior minister Diane Abbott following Rudd's resignation.

"The architect of this crisis, Theresa May, must now step forward to give a full and honest account of how this inexcusable situation happened on her watch."

Rudd's decision to step down will come as a severe setback for the Conservative leader, who publicly declared her "full confidence" in Rudd as recently as Friday and faces potentially bruising local council elections across England on Thursday.

May could see the Tories wiped out in London, where several once-safe Conservative councils could flip to Labour.

As the Windrush scandal intensified, Rudd told a parliamentary committee the Home Office did not keep targets for the number of illegal immigrants removed from Britain.

While she maintained she was unaware of such measures, there was mounting evidence that targets did exist and were known about within her department, making her position increasingly untenable.

Rudd had been due to make another appearance before parliament on Monday, but instead opted to resign late Sunday.

The MP for Hastings on England's south coast, who had led the Home Office since 2016, was seen as a moderate on the European Union and a balancing force in a cabinet made up of several big-name pro-Brexit figures, such as Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Environment Secretary Michael Gove.

Both men were quick to praise her on social media following news of the resignation.

"Really sad to lose @AmberRuddHR from Cabinet. A fine colleague who did a great job during last year's terrorist attacks and cares deeply about the people she serves," Johnson tweeted.

Gove said he was "so sad" about her departure, adding on Twitter "she was a huge asset... I hope Amber will be back soon -- we need her."

One of the more heartfelt reactions came from George Osborne, long-time finance minister under former Prime Minister David Cameron.

He wrote: "The Government just got a bit less human." </s> British Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has attacked the Prime Minister Theresa May after she called a snap general election.

A debate is underway in the House of Commons which will then be followed by a vote.

May is expected to secure the two thirds majority needed which will bring forward the election by three years.

She's insisting that the vote will strengthen Brexit negotiations, but she's ruled out facing party leaders in TV debates.

Something which Corbyn has criticised. </s> United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday suspended senior politician Mark Field after a video showed him manhandling a protestor at an event in London, BBC reported. The assault took place on Thursday when Field, who is Britain’s minister of state for Asia and the Pacific, was at a black-tie event.

Field attacked a demonstrator from Greenpeace United Kingdom when she had interrupted a speech by Chancellor Philip Hammond. Field said he had reacted instinctively. “There was no security present and I was for a split-second genuinely worried she might have been armed,” ITV quoted Field as saying. “As a result, I grasped the intruder firmly in order to remove her from the room as swiftly as possible.”

Field said he has referred himself to the Cabinet for an inquiry into the incident, and apologised to the woman. “I deeply regret this episode and unreservedly apologize to the lady concerned for grabbing her, but in the current climate I felt the need to act decisively to close down the threat to the safety of those present,” he added.

At Thursday’s event, dozens of activists showed up wearing red suits, red dresses with sashes that said “climate emergency”, and then refused to leave. The video shows Field getting up from his chair and stopping a female protestor by pushing her against a pillar. He was also seen grabbing her by the neck and escorting her out of the room while the woman says “it was a peaceful protest”.

Greenpeace tweeted on Friday that the activist was doing fine. “She’s had a good sleep and is doing fine,” Greenpeace UK said. “We’re looking after her. Thanks so much for your love and concern everyone. We’re sharing positive messages with her.”

A spokesperson of the prime minister said that Field will remain suspended while the investigation is on. “The Prime Minister has seen the footage and found it very concerning,” a spokesperson told CNN. “The police have said they are looking into reports over this matter and Mark Field has also referred himself to both the Cabinet Office and Conservative Party.”

The spokesperson further added that the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team would investigate whether there had been a violation of the ministerial code. The London Police said that it was looking into “a number of third-party reports of a possible assault” against the minister.

Opposition party leaders condemned Field’s actions with some calling for his resignation. “It is truly shocking to see this kind of behaviour from an MP,” Independent quoted London Mayor Sadiq Khan as saying. “Violence against women is endemic in our society and this behaviour is unacceptable. He should consider his position.”

However, some Conservative MPs defended their colleague. “I think there’s no reason to criticise Mark Field...Of course it wasn’t an assault, it was a reversal of direction,” said politician Sir Peter Bottomley. </s> London: British Prime Minister Theresa May's gamble in calling an early election backfired spectacularly, as her Conservative Party lost its majority in Parliament and pressure mounted on her Friday to resign.

The shock result throws British politics into chaos and could send Britain's negotiations to leave the European Union — due to start June 19 — into disarray. The pound lost more than 2 cents against the dollar.

With 636 of 650 seats in the House of Commons declared, the Conservatives had 310 to the Labour Party's 258. Even if the Conservatives won all the remaining seats, the party would fall short of the 326 needed for an outright majority. Before the election the Conservatives had 330 seats and Labour 229.

ALSO READ | Britons Have Returned a Hung Parliament. Here's What Happens Next

May called the snap election in the hope of increasing her majority and strengthening Britain's hand in exit talks with the European Union with a "strong and stable government." Instead, the result means the Conservatives will need to rely on support from smaller parties to govern, with more instability and the chance of yet another early election.

"This is a very bad moment for the Conservative Party, and we need to take stock," Conservative lawmaker Anna Soubry said. "And our leader needs to take stock as well."

The results confounded those who said Labour's left-wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was electorally toxic. Written off by many pollsters, Labour surged in the final weeks of the campaign. It drew strong support from young people, who appeared to have turned out to vote in bigger-than-expected numbers.

As she was resoundingly re-elected to her Maidenhead seat in southern England, May looked tense and did not spell out what she planned to do.

ALSO READ | 'Naughty' May Faces Twitter Mockery After Tories Limp to Lead

"The country needs a period of stability, and whatever the results are the Conservative Party will ensure we fulfil our duty in ensuring that stability," she said.

Many predicted she would soon be gone.

"Clearly if she's got a worse result than two years ago and is almost unable to form a government, then she, I doubt, will survive in the long term as Conservative Party leader," former Conservative Treasury chief George Osborne said on ITV.

Corbyn said May should "go ... and make way for a government that is truly representative of all the people of this country." Speaking after being re-elected to his London seat, Corbyn said the election result means "politics has changed" and voters have rejected Conservative austerity.

The result was bad news for the Scottish National Party, which lost about 20 of its 54 seats. Among the casualties was Alex Salmond, a former first minister of Scotland and one of the party's highest-profile lawmakers.

The losses complicate the SNP's plans to push for a new referendum on Scottish independence as Britain prepares to leave the EU. Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said the idea of a new independence referendum "is dead. That's what we have seen tonight."

ALSO READ | UK Gets First Turbaned MP as Labour Lifts Count of Indian-origin Winners

May had hoped the election would focus on Brexit, but that never happened, as both the Conservatives and Labour said they would respect voters' wishes and go through with the divorce.

May, who went into the election with a reputation for quiet competence, was criticized for a lackluster campaigning style and for a plan to force elderly people to pay more for their care, a proposal her opponents dubbed the "dementia tax." As the polls suggested a tightening race, pollsters spoke less often of a landslide and raised the possibility that May's majority would be eroded.

Then, attacks that killed 30 people in Manchester and London twice brought the campaign to a halt, sent a wave of anxiety through Britain and forced May to defend the government's record on fighting terrorism. Corbyn accused the Conservatives of undermining Britain's security by cutting the number of police on the streets.

Eight people were killed near London Bridge on Saturday when three men drove a van into pedestrians and then stabbed revelers in an area filled with bars and restaurants. Two weeks earlier, a suicide bomber killed 22 people as they were leaving an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.

ALSO READ | With No Clear Winner, What Happens to Brexit?

Rachel Sheard, who cast her vote near the site of the London Bridge attack, said the election certainly wasn't about Brexit.

"I don't think that's in the hearts and minds of Londoners at the minute, (not) nearly as much as security is," said Sheard, 22. "It was very scary on Saturday."

Steven Fielding, a professor of politics at the University of Nottingham, said Britain had seen an election "in which the personal authority of a party leader has disappeared in an unprecedented way."

"If she had got the majority she wanted, she would have been a supreme political colossus," he said. "She did not get that and she's a hugely diminished figure. She's a zombie prime minister." </s> British Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party today suffered a major blow in the snap election after it failed spectacularly to maintain its majority in the parliament, creating new uncertainties ahead of the Brexit negotiations.

The Conservatives, however, emerged as the single largest party in the election for Britain's 650-seat parliament.

With results yet to be declared for only eight seats, Conservatives had won 313 and Labour secured 260. A party required 326 seats to win the election.

Though May won her Maidenhead seat in south-east England with 37,780 votes, she faced pressure to resign after losing her parliamentary majority.

Ahead of the final result, May said Britain needed a "period of stability".

"The Conservative party is on course to winning the most votes and it will be incumbent on us that we provide that period of stability," May said, seemingly conceding the exit poll predictions of a hung parliament and her dashed hopes of a landslide win.

Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who defeated predictions to improve his party's performance in the election, called on May "to go" to make way for his party.

"Politics has changed and this is people saying they have had quite enough… I am very proud of the results that are coming in and the vote for hope. The prime minister called the election because she wanted a mandate and the mandate is that she has lost seats," he said.

Corbyn earlier claimed on Twitter that the Labour party had "changed the face of British politics".
British Prime Minister Theresa May faces backlash after accusations emerge that the Conservatives allegedly planned on reducing social welfare spending.