FORMER Health Secretary Ben Bradshaw has accused the Conservatives of dishonesty over care for the elderly as it emerged that the Government was not ruling out introducing a compulsory levy to pay for it.

Labour's proposal to force everybody to contribute towards the cost of future care was savaged by Andrew Lansley, now Health Secretary, before the election. A mooted levy on estates was branded a "death tax" by the Tories, who put up posters featuring a gravestone inscribed "RIP Off".

Now the coalition's new Commission on the Funding of Care and Support has said it has been permitted to look at all options for reform of elderly care, including a compulsory levy.

Exeter MP Mr Bradshaw said he had lost count of how many pre-election promises the Government had already broken.

"Everyone remembers the gravestone poster Cameron and Lansley posed next to, scaring people about Labour's consultation which included a compulsory levy as one of the options," he said. "Now they are proposing exactly the same.

"It does not make sense to rule out a levy on estates as one way of funding long-term care costs, but the Government has been dishonest in how it has approached this."

The Department of Health stressed that the commission would be looking at options for a voluntary insurance scheme or a partnership model where the cost is shared between the state and the individual.

However, the Government did not want to "constrain" the commission from considering other options, including a compulsory levy.

Before the election, the Tories' preferred option was for a one-off £8,000 premium, at the age of 65, which would guarantee free care for life.