David Cameron attacked the government's plans for care reform during prime minister's questions this afternoon.
He said that local councils controlled by all parties, including Labour, thought the plans would lead to council tax rises and had "major weaknesses" and would "raise false expectations”.
"Everybody wants to do more to help with care," he said. "But why does the prime minister think that so many of the people responsible for dealing with this policy are so completely unconvinced.”
Gordon Brown accused Cameron of performing a U-Turn on the policy
"His party supporting this Bill as it went through the House of Commons," he said.
"I don’t know if he has done another U-Turn in policy over the last few hours?
"Surely a party who supported a policy one week shouldn't be opposing the next week?"
"We have had U-Turns every day of the month from the Conservative Party," he added.
But stepping up his attack on the prime minister, Cameron asked how the proposals were to be funded.
He quoted from Labour peers and former senior civil servants, including former cabinet secretary Lord Turnbull who described the policy as a "classic Gordon brown dividing line".
"It is Labour councils telling the prime minister his own policy doesn’t add up," he told the Commons.
"He wants to tell us about the benefits of the policy before the election and tell us about the costs after the election."
The policy was not for the benefit of the elderly, he added, but "about the benefit of the Labour party".
And he called on Brown to rule in or out a flat levy of up to £20,000 on pensioners in order to pay for the plans.
Told to read the White Paper on the issue to find out the answer, Cameron said: " I've got the paper right here, one of the options is a £20,000 levy on every single elderly person on this country except the very poor."
But Brown said he had not read it "correctly" and should "read the whole chapter".
And he added that Cameron had to take down his party's first election poster that featured his face because it was "not authentic" and would have to bring down the latest one because it was "simply wrong"
The latest Conservative Party campaign poster features a gravestone with the words "R.I.P OFF" engraved on it, along with the slogan "now Gordon wants £20,000 when you die, don't vote for Labour's new death tax".
Brown again criticised Cameron for breaking what he said was cross party consensus on the issue.
"The Conservatives have deliberately broken the consensus that existed even after they voted for the Bill," he said.
"As I understand it the shadow health secretary asked for talks with the health minster so there could be censuses on this issue."
He added: "Only last night that they have broken the consensus"
An increasingly noisy chamber had to be calmed down by the Speaker on multiple occasions when Brown spoke.
But the prime minister said that the "wall of noise will not disguise the fact that Conservative party have absolutely no policy that is vital to the needs of the elderly for the future”.
