Barbara Keeley MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Mental Health and Social Care, responding to the news that 1.2 million elderly people who need care are not receiving it, said:

“It is both shocking and predictable that nearly 1.2 million elderly people in the UK are in need of care but are not receiving it.

“This is the direct result of 6 years of brutal cuts to local council budgets. This ruthless austerity agenda has had a clear knock-on effect on our NHS, which is stretched to breaking point, and the social care sector, which has reached crisis.

“Meanwhile, elderly people - who have worked hard and paid their taxes to a system which they expected to protect them - are being left alone in their time of need.

“The Government must urgently produce immediate funds to stem the crisis as well as a long-term strategy for sustainable funding of social care. There is no time left to wait.”