New UK leader Burnham vows to fix a 'broken' social care system

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledged Wednesday that he will succeed where decades of predecessors have failed and fix a “broken” social care system built on an overstretched public sector and profit-making private firms.

Burnham, 56, said it was a “major dereliction of duty” that his generation of politicians had failed to provide decent care in a way that is affordable for both individuals and the state.

“I think social care in England is as unfair as American healthcare,” Burnham said. “The vulnerable pay with everything.”

The Labour Party leader said he would try to work with other political parties to create a “national care service” to sit alongside the taxpayer-funded National Health Service established after World War II to give free healthcare to all.

Burnham, who became prime minister last week, says it’s his priority to tackle the patchy access to social care for those who need it because of age, illness or disability. It’s a pressing issue in a country with an aging population and a frayed public health system, and one that has haunted previous Labour and Conservative governments.

“You’ve probably got a feeling of déjà vu,” Burnham told the audience in a speech at a London care home. “Don’t have that. This time we’re going to do it.”

“It’s a major dereliction of public duty that Parliament has not faced up to this, of all challenges,” Burnham added, claiming that “politicians have put point-scoring before fixing this issue.”

Burnham included himself among the failures, having proposed social care reform in 2009 when he was health secretary under former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Now he has returned to government after a decade away as mayor of Greater Manchester. And, with his father living with Alzheimer’s, Burnham said the issue is personal.

“I’m making this a test of myself,” he said. “I would never forgive myself if I left without having tried.”

Burnham said Louise Casey, a social welfare expert who has led public numerous reviews and inquiries, would helm a “Big Conversation” to hear from the public on care.

Casey said it would strive to be a “game changer that tries to renegotiate the social contract with the public.”

The prime minister also invited opposition leaders to a meeting about the issue, saying change will come only if rival politicians find common ground.

The main opposition Conservative Party said its health spokesperson would attend the talks, and centrist Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said he would go. Anti-immigration party Reform UK, which leads many opinion polls but has just seven seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, said it was not invited.

Burnham said he was prepared to risk unpopularity to make changes, which could mean tax increases.

He said he would work to increase pay, training and status for care workers who do vital work for “poverty pay.” The government also will look at how much people must pay before they can receive state-funded care, and at the role of private companies who own the bulk of care homes.

Baroness Louise Casey speaks during a visit of a care home in London, Wednesday, July 29, 2026.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)

Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham speaks to residents, care workers, volunteers and social care stakeholders during a care home visit in London, Wednesday, July 29, 2026.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)

Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham speaks to a resident as he visits a care home in London, Wednesday, July 29, 2026.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)

Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham speaks to a resident as he visits a care home in London, Wednesday, July 29, 2026.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)

Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham talks to a resident during a visit to a care home in London, Wednesday, July 29, 2026.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)

LEGE-CAP FERRET, France (AP) — Firefighters in southwest France battled an uncontained wildfire four times the size of Paris on Wednesday as temperatures were forecast to reach 40 C (104 F), threatening to turn a calm night into only a brief reprieve.

Authorities in the Gironde region said the blaze had not spread overnight, but rising heat and afternoon winds could revive smoldering hot spots, carry embers across firebreaks and open new fronts beyond crews’ reach.

At the command center in Lège, firefighters bent over maps spread across a car hood, tracking three danger zones: northern Cap-Ferret; the wooded corridor around Marcheprime, Cestas and Saint-Jean-d’Illac; and a military site near Martignas, where a major outbreak forced a large deployment.

More than 2,200 firefighters and over 20 aircraft remained mobilized, backed by crews from across France and European partners.

“We strike quickly and strike hard at any new smoke emissions,” Gironde fire commander Matthieu Jomain said.

The advance of major fires in the Landes and Var regions have been halted. That left Gironde as France’s biggest remaining wildfire battle, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said.

The Gironde fire forced 220,000 people to flee at the peak of the crisis. Tens of thousands have since been allowed home, but authorities warned that the danger had not passed.

Extreme heat strips moisture from vegetation and drives down humidity, turning grasses, brush and forest litter into faster-burning fuel.

Météo-France said Wednesday would be the hottest and driest day of the week, with elevated wildfire danger across every region of France. Drought now covers mainland France and Corsica, with soils nearing the record dryness reached in August 2022.

Smoke from the Gironde and Landes fires also pushed particulate pollution higher across both departments, regional air-quality monitors said.

Gironde authorities ordered 4,000 more people out of tourist sites along the Atlantic coast on Tuesday, widening what may be France’s largest peacetime evacuation.

“The situation remains complicated. That’s clear. We’re not out of the woods,” said Gironde prefect Sophie Brocas, who also authorized 60,000 evacuees to return to three Bordeaux suburbs untouched by fire.

The opposing movements — thousands ordered out of coastal resorts as others returned with mobile phones on and emergency bags packed — captured how precarious the situation remains.

The disruption was spreading beyond the burn zone into Bordeaux’s peak tourism season.

Edouard le Grix de la Salle, who runs Château du Grand Verdus with his brother, said official appeals to avoid the region threatened its wine-tourism trade. “How did they not think about protecting that sector?” he told The Associated Press.

At the height of the crisis, roughly 330,000 people were driven from homes and vacation sites across France and Spain.

Tens of thousands of people began returning home in central Spain after firefighters made progress around Madrid and Ávila. Evacuation orders were lifted for about 20,000 people in the Madrid region, while stay-at-home restrictions ended for another 14,000.

But 10,000 people remain under evacuation orders in Castellón, where a fire was still out of control as Spain braced for its fourth heat wave of the summer.

At one point the Gironde blaze created a black thundercloud, electrified and lit from within, that generated lightning, violent winds and new fires beyond the original front. The pyrocumulonimbus was the first recorded in France.

More than 1,160 square kilometers (448 square miles) have burned across France this year, according to the Interior Ministry.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, warming at more than twice the global average, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate service. Western Europe recorded its hottest June on record, with extreme heat and widespread dryness contributing to the spread and intensification of fires in France and Spain, Copernicus said.

Adamson reported from Paris. Suman Naishadham in Madrid and John Leicester and Masha Macpherson in Paris contributed.

A fire burns in a forest near Claouey, during wildfires in southwestern France, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

A car burned by a wildfire sits in Piedralaves, Ávila province, Spain, as the fire continues to spread, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Firefighters use controlled burning to halt a wildfire that continues to spread near Cebreros, Ávila province, Spain, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Firefighters battle a blaze outside Lanton, during wildfires in southwestern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

A De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 drops fire retardant over a forest near Saint-Jean-d'Illac, during wildfires in southwestern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

Firefighters battle a blaze outside Lanton, during wildfires in southwestern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)