WHAT WAS DITCHED FROM THE QUEEN’S SPEECH...
A CONTROVERSIAL plan to bring in a so called “dementia tax” to pay for social care has been ditched from the Queen’s Speech.
The centrepiece of the Tory election manifesto, credited with destroying Theresa May’s hopes for a massive parliamentary majority, was one of a series of high profile policies not to make it into the legislative proposal.
Other items scrapped were plans to tackle the Human Rights Act, introduce a new wave of grammar schools, end the triple lock on pensions, take away the winter fuel allowance from wealthy pensioners and bring forward a vote on fox hunting.
There was also no mention of the plan to withdraw free school lunches at primary schools and replace it with a free breakfast.
Amid continuing anger on the Tory backbenches and faced with having to run a minority government Mrs May has dropped the most controversial plans. In a symbolic act the Conservative Party also deleted the much criticised manifesto from its website and head of the Number 10 policy unit John Godfrey quit.
Mrs May has already lost her two closest advisers Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy in the wake of the disappointing election result.
The “dementia tax” proved to be a crucial moment in the election when the Tories announced a new tax would be taken from people’s estates after they died to pay for social care.
The policy was that the first £100,000 would be protected, more than quadrupling the current protected amount.
However, within days of the manifesto launch Mrs May was forced to issue a “clarification after Labour scaremongering” to say there would be a cap on the maximum amount that could be taken from the estate. Tory opponents successfully portrayed the clarification as a “U-turn” which undermined Mrs May’s claim she was the “strong and stable” option for government.
Instead of the proposal, the Queen’s Speech said there would be a consultation on how to fund care. Age UK charity director Caroline Abrahams said a fairer system is “desperately needed”. But she added: “The proposals set out in the Conservative Party manifesto were insufficiently thought through and involved a major shift of financial liability on to older people and their families, and there was a lack of clarity as to what they might receive in return which might make such policies fair and worthwhile from their point of view.”
Mrs May tried to provide reassurance that another manifesto promise on introducing an energy price cap is not being ditched. She said the Government intends to “take action on this issue”, but did not say whether the cap would be introduced.
A Downing Street spokesman later confirmed that the Government is “keeping legislation in reserve” if they cannot negotiate a price cap with the energy companies through the regulator Ofgem.