In an interview with the Standard, the prime minister denied that the U-turn on the so-called dementia tax was caused by her reliance on a tight circle of close advisers.
“No,” she said to a suggestion, made by senior backbenchers, that she did not consult enough before rushing out the elderly care policy. “One of the great things about being prime minister is that actually you are able to take advice from a huge variety of people.”
Her defiant comments will dismay Conservatives candidates who distanced themselves from the manifesto announcement during the campaign. Executive members of the 1922 Committee, which represents backbenchers, expect discontent over the episode to be raised with May after the election. Some want her to clip the wings of aides such as Nicholas Timothy, who reportedly wrote the policy.
May said she took advice more widely than predecessors. “I believe it is important to have leadership — but I said right at the beginning we would have more green papers and white papers to consult with the public.”
The prime minister confirmed that the cap on individual payments for care in old age — which was rushed out after the original announcement bombed with voters — would be funded by means-testing winter fuel payments. These are worth up to £300 a year and claimed by 12mn pensioners.
But May declined to say what level the cap would be at — or how many pensioners would lose the fuel bills help. “I genuinely want to consult,” she insisted, saying the public must wait for a summer green paper.