Lame duck Liz Truss today performed a chaotic U-turn and said the state pension WILL rise with inflation next April - just 24 hours after she shelved the Tory manifesto pledge.
Yesterday No10 said the PM was no longer committing to the triple lock, which raises pensions by the highest of 2.5%, earnings or inflation.
Downing Street had said reviewing it was a "mutual decision" with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt - who is drawing up sweeping spending cuts to balance the books.
But after inflation hit 10.1% today and Tory MPs lined up to blast the Prime Minister, she committed a surprise reverse ferret at PMQs.
She said: "We have been clear in our manifesto that we will maintain the triple lock and I am completely committed to it - so is the Chancellor".
No10 said the embattled PM "recognised and discussed with the Chancellor" that "pensioners are in a unique position, unable to increase earnings through work."
Yet she repeatedly dodged requests from backbench Tories, including John Baron, to raise working-age benefits like Universal Credit by 10.1% too.
She could not even promise carers' allowance would rise with inflation - after Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said millions "have been forced to cut back on food and heating."
Downing Street refused to deny Liz Truss overruled her Chancellor over pensions. Her Press Secretary said: "I’m not getting into the minutiae of all the discussions ahead of the 31st…,They make decisions on tax and spend jointly.”
Asked if the PM was 100% sure she would still be in power on October 31, her Press Secretary replied: “Yes.”
It came as Ms Truss faced a humiliating clash with Sir Keir Starmer for the first time since she junked her entire economic strategy.
Opposition MPs shrieked with laughter as she told the Labour leader: "I do think there has to be some reflection of economic reality from the party opposite."
She said interest rates had risen across the world, and said " "I'm a fighter, not a quitter" - echoing the 2001 declaration by Labour grandee Peter Mandelson.
She added: "I am somebody who’s prepared to front up. I’m prepared to take the tough decisions." After ditching all but six months of universal energy bills support, she added: "He’s done nothing to say or protect people after one year. He’s got no plan."
But Keir Starmer said of a wave of impending austerity: "Those spending cuts are on the table for one reason and one reason only - because they crashed the economy."
Labour's leader said the "only mandate she’s ever had" was from her own MPs, "it was a mandate built on fantasy economics and it ended in disaster.
"The country’s got nothing to show for it but the destruction of the economy and the implosion of the Tory party."
He listed the £32bn in measures junked from the mini-Budget with a cry echoed by MPs: "Gone!" He added: "They're all gone, so why is she still here?"
The PM also came under fire from her own side as senior Tories took part in Prime Minister’s Questions, urging her to raise benefits with inflation.
And she faces more pressure after Tory whips warned MPs a vote on fracking tonight, tabled by Labour, will be treated as a motion of confidence in the government.
Shadow Leader of the Commons Thangam Debbonaire said: “The consequence of making this a confidence vote is that if the government loses the motion on fracking, the Prime Minister will resign and the government will fall.
"The Tories must urgently confirm this is the case.”
Later the PM's Press Secretary appeared unaware of the details. Asked if she would resign if she lost, he replied: "The PM's not resigning".
In a bid to stop MPs launching a coup, the PM has started inviting her angry backbenchers into No10 for drinks.
One of those who attended a gathering on Tuesday evening told the Mirror that Ms Truss was more convincing behind closed doors than in her disastrous public appearances, but they warned she is “still in trouble”.
In a further sign of trouble, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt met with Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, last night.
Sources insisted it was routine but it came a day after the PM also met Sir Graham - who has a powerful say over her fate as the voice of Tory MPs.
Even Tory supporters of Liz Truss have been turning against the PM.
One MP last week told the Mirror their “hysterical” colleagues had a “death wish” adding: “It’s not as bad as everyone makes out."
But today the MP said: "That was before Kwasi was sacked. Now, I don't know."
The MP predicted Liz Truss would not be ousted immediately - but suggested there were doubts over her future.
James Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary, refused to say how many more mistakes Ms Truss can afford to make. He told Sky News "the plan is not to make mistakes” and “we don’t aim to make mistakes”. But he added: “Mistakes happen."
In a perfect storm for the PM and vulnerable Brits, food prices are going up quicker than at any point in the past 40 years creating fresh misery for shoppers.
Inflation rose to a whopping 10.1% in September. The increase was driven by food prices, leaping by 14.5% compared with the same month last year - the largest annual rise since 1980.
It means an average trolley of shopping that would cost £100 a year ago is now £114.50. The price of cereals, milk and cheese all went up along with energy bills and transport costs.
Ms Truss had faced a growing Tory rebellion after she paved the way to strip millions of pensioners of hundreds of pounds a year.
The PM had been poised to axe the pensions triple lock, which guarantees payments rise by the highest of 2.5%, wages or inflation - in other words, 10.1%.
Yesterday she was preparing to ditch the pledge and use the 5.5% earnings figure instead -making the New State Pension £433 a year lower than expected.
Tory peer Baroness Ros Altmann, a former Pensions Minister, warned: “Pensioners cannot be abandoned because we have a short-term problem.
“Either we have a welfare state or we don’t.”
She added: “I find it incomprehensible that any government could treat pensioners in this way.
“One minute, don't worry, you're protected. Next minute, well, you might not be protected. The next minute, don't worry, you're definitely protected. And then the next minute, put it all up in the air."
After five Tory MPs publicly urged the PM to quit and a sixth wrote of “dumpster fires”, a seventh, Steve Double, warned the PM will soon “have to consider her position and step aside”.
He told Times Radio: “I think it's becoming abundantly clear when you look at the loss of confidence in her as Prime Minister from the general public, and increasingly I think the loss of confidence in her from the parliamentary party, that we are going to get to the point where she really does have to consider her position and for the good of the country, step aside, and I think we will probably come to that place quite soon."
Mr Double urged the PM to protect an inflation rise not just to pensions, but also working-age benefits like Universal Credit.
He added: “We should not be balancing the books for the situation that we now find ourselves in, off the backs of those who need that support the most.”
