Kevin Lee

Some conversations never leave you. I for one will never forget being asked by a former member of the Coldstream Guards, in May 2017 on an early-morning walkabout of the city centre during my time as Mayor of Greater Manchester, whether I could justify him being left with no option but to bed down on cardboard and a sleeping bag on the steps of the Royal Exchange Theatre. I said no, I couldn't. But I walked away knowing he was not the only one. People who had been prepared to put their lives on the line for us now sheltering in theatre and shop doorways. I remember feeling chastened. How had my generation of politicians allowed this situation to develop without doing enough to prevent it? Most people leaving the Armed Forces go on to thrive in Civvy Street. They bring skills, discipline and experience that any employer should value. But some struggle with life after service, often through no fault of their own. Conditions caused by their time in the forces, such as PTSD, or the lack of support with the transition from one life to another, can be a root cause of homelessness. Too many are still left to face that struggle alone. When someone who has worn our nation's uniform ends up surviving on the streets, we owe them more than warm words on Remembrance Weekend. At the very least, we owe them a bed every night and support to recover. Everyone should know what help is available and where to find it. If you are a veteran facing homelessness, or know one who is, contact Op FORTITUDE, the UK-wide helpline, on 0800 952 0774 for immediate support. This is one of many government-backed veteran programmes, but I know we must do more. This Remembrance Sunday, as we honour those who have served and sacrificed for us, I want to set a new operating principle for the British state. It is simply this: no one who has served our country should be left to sleep on its streets. As part of my drive to end rough sleeping, I will be writing to councils in England this week to ask them to draw up a specific plan on veteran homelessness. As a start, I will ask them to ensure that any veteran sleeping rough is offered appropriate accommodation before Christmas. For the first time, the money is there to do it. We have provided councils with almost £900 million until the end of this Parliament to help end rough sleeping, including among veterans. We are also allocating nearly £9 million to local veterans' centres across the UK for targeted housing, employment and health support. Nearly all our councils have signed the Armed Forces Covenant. They care about our veterans and are already doing vital work with local charities to support them. Now we must go further and help councils turn that commitment into a roof over every head every night. Our veterans stood by us. We must stand by them. That means a commitment to a supported path away from the streets for everyone who needs one. From this Remembrance Sunday onwards, I want the whole country to honour that simple pledge.

I’m deeply saddened to hear that Pat Karney has died. Pat gave nearly 50 years of his life to serving Manchester. He saw the city through some of its toughest times and played his part in the growth and transformation that followed. I knew Pat for many years. He loved Manchester deeply and was a tireless champion for the people he represented. I’ll miss him greatly. My thoughts are with his family and everyone who knew and loved him.

Russia has intensified its strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure over the weekend. This is an attack on Ukrainian civilians, plunging them into cold and darkness. The UK strongly supports President Trump's call today for a sustained energy ceasefire to start now. I discussed this with @zelenskyyUa yesterday: Ukraine is ready if Russia stops its attacks. This is the best route to get energy and fuel back into world markets.

Three years on from the October 7 attacks on Israel, we remember those who were senselessly killed by Hamas terrorists. The impact of the attacks has been felt not just in Israel, but in Jewish communities across the world who still bear the burden of the tragic events that day. In the years since, we have seen a disturbing rise in antisemitic behaviour in the UK. A year ago we witnessed a horrifying terrorist attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation in Manchester, with further attacks against Jewish people and institutions since. I want Britain’s Jewish community to hear this from me directly. We stand with you. Abuse and violence against you, in any form, will not be tolerated. Not on our streets, not online, not in our schools or universities. That’s why we are funding protection for synagogues, schools and community buildings, and why we will come down hard on antisemitism wherever it is found - in classrooms, on campuses and in neighbourhoods. At home, we are committed to protecting our citizens from vile hatred. Abroad, we continue to work towards a two-state solution, with Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace and security. An attack on Jewish people in Britain is an attack on all of us. Antisemitism has no place in this country, and we will do everything we can to stamp it out.

I wanted to explain to you directly my announcement on creating a National Care Service and the triple lock. Fundamental change is needed to protect the NHS and give older people the support they need. At Labour conference, I announced a plan to create a National Care Service in the next parliament. To fund it, I am proposing an adjustment to the triple lock on the state pension. This will form the basis of a new settlement for older people in our country. I want to explain why this is necessary and what it would mean for pensioners. Everyone knows that our social care system is broken. And yet, for decades, politicians have failed to fix it. Shamefully, millions of older people have unmet care needs. Far too many see everything they have worked for – their home, pension and savings – wiped out by care bills. The personal cost can be devastating, but we should not make the mistake of thinking the price is paid only by older people and their families. I am convinced that if we carry on as we are, our broken social care system will eventually break our NHS too. Every day, older people who should be receiving support at home or in care settings are unnecessarily admitted to A&E. Meanwhile, hospital beds are occupied by people who are fit to leave but have nowhere to go because the care they need is not in place. Go to any hospital and you will see the effect. Corridor care is no longer simply the result of winter pressures. It is a commonplace indignity suffered by thousands of patients every day. It is time for fundamental change. The best chance we have of saving our NHS is to build a high-quality care service. The National Care Service I am proposing will be based on NHS principles: everyone contributes and everyone is covered. It will give people peace of mind about their care needs and protect what they have built up over their lifetime. It will provide free personal care – support with the most basic human needs: eating, dressing and bathing. And it will be integrated with the rest of the system, preventative in nature, and deliver care at home wherever possible, exactly where older people want and should be. A National Care Service, I believe, would become as significant as the creation of the NHS itself. But we need to be honest about the changes that are needed to pay for it. And I do not believe it makes sense to preserve the current triple lock while so many pensioners face the risk of catastrophic care costs. We can give pensioners greater financial security. I am proposing to adjust the triple lock. This is not an easy decision, but I believe it is the right one. We pledged in our manifesto that we would keep the triple lock throughout this parliament, and I will keep that promise. This means the state pension is set to rise by more than £2,000 a year, reaching around 30 per cent of average earnings by the end of the decade – its highest ever level. From April 2030, under our adjusted triple lock, we will guarantee that the state pension rises every year by either inflation or 2.5 per cent, whichever is higher. It will also increase by more than this when necessary to ensure that it holds its value relative to average earnings. This means that if inflation spikes, pensioners will be protected. If wages rise, pensioners will share in that rising prosperity, with the state pension tracking earnings over time. Nobody’s pension will ever go down. And the state pension will be put on a sustainable footing for decades to come. I want to be upfront about what I am proposing because this adjustment will bring change. The state pension will not increase as quickly as it otherwise would if we kept the triple lock in its current form. However, the adjustment will enable us to fix social care for everyone by building a National Care Service that provides older people with free personal care at the point of need. I believe this is a better deal for pensioners. I do not expect people to support this plan without seeing the full detail. We will start laying the ground now for the National Care Service and introduce it as soon as possible in the next parliament. Louise Casey’s review will advise us on exactly how and we will build the maximum consensus around her recommendations. It will be fully funded – and not through borrowing. I appeal to everyone to engage in this debate responsibly and urge politicians to continue the cross-party talks that began over the summer. We need less point scoring and more problem solving. The situation is too serious for us to play politics. Care workers struggling on low pay, families stretched to breaking point, older people fearful of losing everything they have worked for. We need to give them reason to hope again. I have wanted to fix social care for a long time. As health secretary in 2009, I tried to find a cross-party solution. Since then, I have watched the challenges grow more acute and the consequences become more severe. It is a profound failure of politics that we have known about this problem for so long and yet failed to act. I would never forgive myself if I did not try now. This is the settlement I am offering to pensioners: a state pension that rises every year, no care charges and a high-quality National Care Service to give peace of mind in later life. I do not pretend this will be easy. But in the end, politics is about finding a way. I gave my word that I would do everything in my power to build a care system worthy of the people who provide it and all those who depend on it. This is how we can achieve it.