Defiant Liz Truss faces a full-scale Tory revolt as she plots to clobber millions of poor Brits with a real-terms benefits cut.
The Prime Minister is looking at cancelling the vow to raise welfare by inflation of about 10% next April, instead using earnings growth of just over 5%.
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng will bring forward the date of his November 23 plan to cut debt and spending, to as soon as this month.
But even serving minister Penny Mordaunt, who sits in Cabinet, sent a warning shot to the PM. The Commons Leader told Times Radio: “We are not about trying to help people with one hand and take it away with another.”
She added: "I have always supported, whether it's pensions, whether it's our welfare system, keeping pace with inflation. It makes sense to do so. That's what I voted for before and so have a lot of my colleagues."
Ministers have been raising concerns privately about Liz Truss's threat to cut benefits, a No10 insider said. They added: "Put it this way - the policy is dynamic."
A leading ‘One Nation’ Tory warned Liz Truss would “probably not” not get benefit cuts through Parliament - and will need another humiliating U-turn. Damian Green, a former deputy PM and Work and Pensions Secretary, told the BBC : “If people are already struggling and many of these people will be, then making them struggle more is not a sensible response to the problems.”
Other leading Tory voices warning against a benefits cut include ex-minister Michael Gove, Treasury Committee chairman Mel Stride, Blue Collar Tory and former welfare slasher Esther McVey, and former Treasury minister John Glen.
Yet Ms Truss is preparing to press ahead and face down rebels, the Daily Mail reported.
Mr Green told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I completely agree with the Prime Minister when she says you've got to see this in the round.
“But in the round, it doesn't make sense to give an extra £1,200 of help for energy bills to the poorest people in the country, but then say we're going to claw hundreds of pounds of that back.
“That militates against the government's own rescue package.
"I don't see the sense of this.”
Asked if she’d need to make another U-turn he replied: “Well, yes, and I'm trying to avoid that.
“I think, clearly, U turns are not good for governments and they should only do them when they realise that they're on the wrong track. We've had one this weekend so let's avoid the necessity for another.”
Dr Sam Royston of Marie Curie said: "There are no two ways about this. A real-terms cut to benefits would be a direct cut to support for dying people."
Rishi Sunak had promised benefits would rise by inflation - subject to a review on the finer details.
But while Liz Truss has promised to raise pensions by inflation, she told LBC today: “No decision has been made yet on benefit uprating. That decision will be taken in due course.”
Asked if a 70-year-old was more important than a family with children she replied: “I’m not saying that at all.”
Ex-leader William Hague said he would promise benefits rise with inflation "as an act of fairness".
He told Times Radio: "The government will end up being defeated in Parliament if it didn't upgrade benefits with inflation in these difficult circumstances over the coming year."
The Tory Work and Pensions Secretary promised a “measured attitude” to benefit claimants as a Tory revolt mounts.
Chloe Smith refused to say if she had raised concerns privately about a benefits cut - or if she agreed with Cabinet colleague Penny Mordaunt.
Quizzed by the Mirror, she also refused to deny reports she personally has reservations about slashing welfare in real terms next April.
She said her approach will “begin with” the “critical” task of protecting the vulnerable - while also “broadly looking at incentives” to get people into jobs.
Put to her that her language was very measured, she replied: “If you see me as a measured thinker and speaker then actually I’m very happy with that, because on behalf of some of the most vulnerable people in our country, that is the right kind of attitude we should be taking.”
Asked if she agreed with Ms Mordaunt she told a fringe hosted by the Onward think tank: “I’m dreadfully sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not going to add to what I’ve already said on this.
“It is a very large, very serious, quite complex decision for government, it’s one that I’m taking as I should do with data that will be coming in shortly, and that needs very careful consideration.
“The principles that I am using in my approach to that decision certainly begin with protecting the most vulnerable.”
Asked if she personally has reservations or has raised concerns she replied: “I’m sorry guys, I have now said what I’m going to say on this.”
Earlier, Ms Smith had said the government “have to first of all protect the most vulnerable, that is critical”, including “in the benefits uprating matrix”.
But she added the government is “wanting to be able to give people the incentive to go into work, this is there in the growth plan.”
She went on: “On a pure process point I’m not able to set out today what the ingredients of the position are.”
Asked if she was listening to Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss told Sky News: "I'm very clear that going into this winter, we do need to help the most vulnerable.
"In addition to the energy price guarantee we've also made sure the most vulnerable households have an extra £1,200 and this Government will always help people get on in life, whilst making sure the most vulnerable are protected."
Asked if she welcomed Ms Mordaunt's comments she said: "No decision has been made yet on that issue and I look forward to having those discussions."
The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that each percentage point rise in CPI adds £1.6 billion to welfare spending.
One desperate mum was forced to warm her baby milk at the doctor’s surgery as benefits leave poor Brits unable to pay their power bills, the head of Citizens Advice warned.
Dame Clare Moriarty told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “In September we referred more people than ever before to food banks.
“And we've seen a really steep rise in the number of people who can't top up their prepayment meters.
“These are real people - like the woman who came to us recently, a single mum, who was cut off from gas and electricity.
“She'd fallen behind on bills after she separated from her partner, as she'd been pushed on to a prepayment meter, she couldn't top it up.
“She's now having to resort to taking her baby's milk to the GP surgery to warm it up and sitting in her dad's car to keep warm and to charge her phone.”
Mel Stride, Tory chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, said he would have to "think long and hard" if asked to vote to increase benefits in line with earnings rather than inflation.
Mr Stride told Today: "The last time the benefits were uprated, because of the way the mechanism works they're uprated in April but they're pegged against the previous September's inflation, and the way it worked last time was the uprating was just 3.1% because inflation was low the previous September, but of course inflation was much higher than that (in April).
"So we're coming off the back actually of a kind of quite a strong real-terms squeeze on those benefits already so I think that will be a really tough call to make."
An anonymous minister told The Times that the policy would be “unfair” and “politically unsustainable”. “We’re not mad,” one minister pleaded.
Even Chloe Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, is said to have reservations after vowing yesterday to protect the vulnerable.
