It has been reported that the Labour party is meeting this Friday to agree its manifesto. One of the most important challenges people face is the cost of social care for their loved ones. My husband, Iain Coleman, the MP for Hammersmith and Fulham from 1997 to 2005, has had about 20 strokes since 2004, and as a consequence has early dementia. In 1991, my husband became the leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council, and – together with our brilliant director of social services, Dame Denise Platt and subsequently Geoff Alltimes, and in particular the driving force of my late fellow councillor and chief whip Colin Aherne – we introduced a policy of free social care. The strategy was controversial and necessitated us closing residential care homes and reinvesting the proceeds of the sale of the land into the provision of free social care at home. When the Tories took control of the council in 2008, they introduced a means-tested policy. But when Labour retook the council in 2018, it abolished the means-testing regime and went back to my husband’s free care policy. It is ironic that my husband is now one of the major beneficiaries of that policy. He has free 24-hour social care, and I believe every local authority in the nation could provide this for everyone who needs it. I hope that Labour can commit to this objective. I will be eternally grateful to the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, for ensuring that my husband received 24-hour free care from the start of Covid, following an emotional call that I had with him on an LBC phone-in with him, despite the fact that he is a Liverpool fan (Iain is an Arsenal supporter). Sally Powell Former member of Labour’s national executive committee