SIR KEIR STARMER must deliver urgent change for unpaid carers and a “creaking social care system” now that he is prime minister, the Carers Trust urged today.

Noting that the Labour election campaign had focused on change, the charity said that for Britain’s seven million unpaid carers, “change can’t come soon enough.”

About 1.5 million people provide care for more than 50 hours a week and more than a quarter of carers have been forced into poverty, it said.

“They’re paying a heavy price for a social care system which has fallen into crisis through lack of investment and long-term planning by successive governments,” said Carers Trust policy and public affairs director Dominic Carter.

“The Prime Minister and his team have to make this a priority.”

Mr Carter said that an overhaul of the “grossly unfair” carer’s allowance system would be a vital first step for the Starmer government.

“The benefit is the lowest of its kind and only those caring for more than 35 hours a week and earning less than £151 a week [can] claim it,” he said.

“If Labour is serious about growth, this broken system urgently needs to change and carers must be helped back into work.”