The Registered Nursing Home Association has reacted angrily to comments by community care minister Stephen Ladyman that older people are "banged up" in care homes.

During a Commons debate last week, he said: "The government want people to be able to choose where they spend their retirement, while the Conservatives want everyone to be banged up in a care home."

RNHA chief executive Frank Ursell said: "We think it is a slur on the thousands of nurses and care assistants who look after the elderly.

"It must have caused a great deal of unnecessary anxiety to any older person about to enter a care home," he added.