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Andy Burnham said he would put his plan for a national care service along the lines of the NHS, funded by the taxpayer and free at the point of use, to the public at the next general election.
The prime minister said he would “grasp the nettle” of social care reform in England, saying it is “devastating” that generations of politicians had failed to address the crisis in the system.
He denounced the current social care system as “unfair as American healthcare, where the most vulnerable in society can lose everything”, as he warned it will “in the end, break the National Health Service”.
Mr Burnham said the proposed care service will “work on NHS principles” but said it will not be introduced before the next election.
He told the BBC that current commitments in the Labour manifesto – which includes a pledge not to raise VAT, income tax, or national insurance – would “make it hard to do in this parliament”.
He said he “will develop a very clear plan, and I will put that plan to the public at a general election.
“That will be that will be where the plan gets tested. And people will then be able to decide.
“And I am prepared to put myself in that position, recognising that it might be difficult or unpopular with some, but that is the way to do it, to get that endorsement and then introduce the system in the next parliament.”
He said that launching a national social care service along NHS principles is “the only way that you can make it work”.
“To be honest with you, broken social care will, in the end, break the national health service if we leave it like it is,” he said.
He also branded social care in England as “unfair as American healthcare” where vulnerable people can be “wiped out, not just by the condition that they have, but wiped out financially”.
He rejected suggestions a free care service could cost taxpayers £18 billion a year, telling the BBC: “It’s not that high.”
But he said people were already paying a high cost for the current system: “People are paying care charges now. They are spending tens of thousands of pounds from their savings, sometimes losing their homes.
“That is what’s happening at the moment.
“So to suggest there isn’t a cost to people at this moment in time, there’s a huge cost.”
Labour’s conference in Liverpool begins on Sunday, with the party’s deputy leader Lucy Powell expected to give a speech to members.
The prime minister will make his speech, aimed at outlining his broad agenda for government, on Tuesday.
He said he would lay out the “vision” for his social care plans in his speech, before Baroness Louise Casey’s review helps “work up the details”.
“Is there any wonder that politics is in such low esteem with the public when it can’t fix something as basic as the care that we give to each other?” he said.
“So it can’t carry on. Somebody needs to grasp the nettle. I will be the one to do that and I realise it might require me to spend some political capital. That it might make me unpopular with some, but that isn’t going to stop me. “