Social care reform could mean big risks and big rewards for Burnham

The state of the social care system in England is a topic that's made Andy Burnham angry for decades.

As Gordon Brown's health secretary he proposed a compulsory levy collected from people's estates – an idea the Conservatives dubbed the "death tax".

He repeatedly returned to the issue when making interventions as the Mayor of Greater Manchester, and in his first major interview as prime minister back in July , Burnham pledged to put "whatever political capital I have into fixing broken social care".

But there are a host of unanswered questions about how the government would fund and deliver what could be an eye-wateringly expensive and politically perilous idea.

The prime minister told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that he will go into the next election proposing a free-to-use, universally funded national care system.

Past governments have looked at how to reform social care and balked at the potential costs.

The Health Foundation has previously estimated that a free system could end up costing the taxpayer around £18bn a year.

Burnham denied that figure but conceded that tackling the issue could make him "unpopular" with some.