Three sentences in Labour’s 1945 manifesto contained a simple but historic promise: “The best health services should be available free for all. Money must no longer be the passport to the best treatment. In the new National Health Service there should be health centres where the people may get the best that modern science can offer, more and better hospitals, and proper conditions for our doctors and nurses.”

In the three years following Labour’s election victory, Nye Bevan fought opposition from the Conservatives, the British Medical Association and from some within his own cabinet to found the NHS. For 76 years, it has provided healthcare free at the point of need, surviving Labour and Conservative governments alike.

The idea was inspired by the Beveridge report, which identified five giants of idleness, ignorance, disease, squalor and want. Were the report being written today, William Beveridge would surely add a sixth: care needs. The social care system in this country is failing. Despite an ageing population, access to publicly funded adult social care has fallen, and the number of older people receiving state-funded care in England has dropped by 10% since 2014–15.

This is piling enormous pressure on the NHS. In November, more than 12,400 hospital patients a day were well enough to leave but had to stay overnight. One in three of these delays were due to care not being available in the community. There is no........

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