India, July 29 -- British Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledged on Wednesday to succeed where decades of predecessors have faltered by dismantling and rebuilding a "broken" social care system reliant on an overstretched public sector and profit-driven private firms. Delivering his first major domestic policy address at a London care home just one week after entering Downing Street, Burnham described the current provisioning model as a systemic failure that penalises the most vulnerable.

"I think social care in England is as unfair as American healthcare," Burnham told attendees, arguing that citizens requiring assistance due to age, illness, or disability are forced to pay with everything they own. The prime minister stressed that without ...