Plan to ban ‘private equity sharks’ from social care dropped, Wes Streeting says

Wes Streeting has said his plan to ban “private equity sharks” from the social care sector was removed from the Labour manifesto, as he accused the government of “overcautiousness” in reforming the industry.

In a Fabian Society report on how to create a national care service, Streeting said overhauling social care was “one of the defining challenges of our age” but an “absence of good political leadership” was holding back change.

“In opposition, social care became a victim of our overcautiousness, which prohibited policy ideas from being floated for fear of what the Tories might say,” he said. “My plan to boot private equity sharks out of social care was cut from the manifesto, as was a proposal for a royal commission. The same culture continued into government.”

The private equity policy was first announced in 2022 and would have banned firms that failed to meet national standards in care, workers’ rights and financial sustainability.

A Labour source said Keir Starmer’s team took the policy out of the manifesto because they were worried it looked “anti-business”.

Streeting said “Downing Street delay” meant the Casey commission, a review into reforming the adult social care sector, would not conclude until 2028 and so major change in the sector before the next general election was unlikely.

“Go on as we are and I predict social care will once again be sacrificed on the altar of an election campaign,” he said. “We must not repeat the mistakes of the past.”

Streeting resigned as health and social care secretary and called on Starmer to resign as prime minister shortly after the May elections. He is expected to run in any imminent leadership contest.

Andy Burnham, who is also expected to run for the leadership if he wins this week’s byelection, said he would fix the social care system “this year” and “wouldn’t flinch from it”, in his first indication of what his priorities would be in office.

It is understood that Streeting would resurrect his plans for regulating private equity in social care in a future government. He also wants to create a social care sponsorship body to remove employers’ power over workers under the current visa model, which leaves workers vulnerable to modern-day slavery.

Other Labour voices in the Fabian Society report who criticised the government over its slow progress in social care reform include Anna Dixon, the Labour MP for Shipley, who said there was a lack of “pace and urgency” on the issue.