𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

A care home resident hilariously forced Andy Burnham into a wry smile when he pointed out Britain’s prime ministers “keep changing every five minutes”. The unabashed elderly gentleman at a home in northwest London didn’t recognise the new Labour PM and first asked if he was “the local candidate?”.

Mr Burnham, 56, replied that he had been a candidate before “but I’m now the prime minister”, to which the resident, who didn’t appear to hear the answer, replied, “You what?”. A member of staff came to the rescue by saying loudly in the man’s ear “he’s the prime minister” prompting a hilarious response from the pensioner, who joked: “What, a new one? They keep changing every 5 minutes.”

The senior citizen’s exchange with Mr Burnham also saw the PM have to tell the man he was “Andy”, the shortening of his name he prefers to use, to which the man replied “Andrew?”.

Conceding that was his name, Mr Burnham added: “That’s it, yeah.”

The resident met Mr Burnham during a visit to the home as the prime minister called on the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and the Lib Dem leader Ed Davey to meet with him to discuss how Britain tackles failing social care.

Speaking at a care home on Wednesday, Mr Burnham said he wanted to start right now, “initiating cross-party talks on social care”.

He added: “And yes, I have been here before, and yes, I do have some of the scars of that, but it’s the right thing to do.

“I stood on the steps of Downing Street just a few days ago, and I said I wanted to create a new way of doing politics in this country, more problem solving, less point scoring, and this is the first big test of that, and I mean what I say. We won’t fix this through politics as usual.”

He said parties would need to find “common ground” to get a “lasting solution” and that “that process starts today”. However, despite inviting the Conservatives and Lib Dems to talks, Mr Burnham has drawn criticism for not inviting Reform UK, the Green Party or the SNP.

Reform UK’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said his party would fight any attempt to introduce a “universal death tax” to fund social care.

“Yes, we’ll make social care work properly, but not with a mammoth tax assault,” the former Tory cabinet minister said.

“Instead, we’ll cut the ridiculous spending the failed political establishment has imposed on our country for 30 years.”

The Green Party’s Westminster leader Ellie Chowns – who, like Reform, was excluded from the cross-party talks – said it was “deeply disappointing” her group was not invited.

“If Andy Burnham is serious about doing things differently and tackling the crisis in care, he must work collaboratively with the Greens and other parties to do so,” she said.