BRITAIN’S largely privatised social care system should be recognised as a “national asset because our loved ones are not profit margins,” general union GMB demanded today.

Delegates at the union’s annual congress in Brighton enthusiastically endorsed calls for Tory ministers to follow the examples of Scotland and Wales and kick start moves to bring the austerity-crippled sector into a national care service.

The move, accompanied by a £15-an-hour minimum wage, would help to end the “national scandal of care workers struggling on poverty wages as the worst operators look to squeeze every last penny into shareholder hands and tax havens,” central executive council member Amanda Burley said.