Liz Truss did enough to get through the day. That is a low hurdle, to be sure, but it was not a given. Anyone who watched her press conference on Friday, when she scarpered after taking just four questions, looking weak and broken, will have wondered whether she was up to coping with the extraordinary pressure that her multiple U-turns have placed her under. But today she sounded confident and combative. A disastrous performance might have triggered an immediate leadership challenge, but she was better than that, and so for the next few hours at least she is probably safe.
It helped that she had something to announce. On Monday, Jeremy Hunt, the new chancellor, indicated that the government was considering shelving the triple lock on pensions. No 10 confirmed this on Tuesday, and James Cleverly was using the same line on Wednesday morning. Now Truss has confirmed that the triple lock will stay. This meant at least she was on the front foot at one point, and the failure by the SNP’s Ian Blackford to grasp what he was being told also allowed her to deliver a competent put-down, which helped make her PMQs look OK.
