Philp said tax increases would be a “red line” for the Conservatives and they would “not under any circumstances” support more of them.
He said the country is “already taxed too highly”, telling the : “If more money is needed, for example, for social care or indeed for defence we would find that money through savings elsewhere, particularly in the welfare budget.”
Labour MP Darren Jones, who served as a cabinet minister in Sir Keir’s government, said Burnham was being “very bold and brave” on social care.
He said: “Politics is about prioritisation and these things do cost money and so we’ll need to see the detail of that policy.”
Jones added if the PM “can land it in the right way, that’d be a huge achievement” for him and the government.
Reform UK’s economic spokesman Robert Jenrick said: “Andy Burnham refuses to rule out his universal death tax.
“He’s too weak to cut the benefits bill so he’s coming for your home instead.”
Burnham accused previous generations of politicians of “cowardice” for failing to reform social care, although his push for change is not without jeopardy.
He previously produced a plan for a national care service while serving as health secretary in Gordon Brown’s Labour government.
It was suggested this would be paid for through a compulsory contribution, including from people’s estates after they had died.
The idea was branded a “death tax” by Labour’s opponents and the proposals went no further after the party lost the 2010 general election.
At the 2017 general election, then-Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May was accused of trying to introduce a “dementia tax” by proposing that people receiving care at home pay for the full costs if they were worth at least £100,000.
The policy sparked a political outcry and the Conservatives lost their majority in the House of Commons at the election.