UNIONS have blasted a right-wing think tank’s “morally bankrupt” claims that Labour’s fair pay agreements for social care staff could cost taxpayers billions of pounds a year.

Carers and trade unions that represent them would negotiate a sector-wide agreement for pay, terms and conditions as part of the party’s new deal for working people.

The proposals were described as an “act of economic self-harm” by Policy Exchange, which argued in a report that raising the sector’s minimum wage to £15 an hour would leave the taxpayer forking out an extra £4.2bn a year via local authorities.