Truss no longer committed to maintaining triple lock on pensions, No 10 says Liz Truss is no longer publicly committed to defending the triple lock – the guarantee that the state pension will rise every year in line with inflation, earnings, or 2.5%, whichever is highest. In their 2019 manifesto the Conservatives said they would “keep the triple lock” and in interviews only two weeks ago, during the party conference, Truss confirmed that she was still “committed” to it. Not any more. At the Downing Street lobby briefing after cabinet, the PM’s spokesperson refused to say that Truss still feels bound by this. He did not say it would definitely go, but he clearly signalled that it is up for negotiation. Asked if Truss was still committed to the triple lock, he replied: We are very aware of how many vulnerable pensioners there are. And, indeed, our priority ahead of this fiscal plan will be to ensure we continue to protect the most vulnerable in society. The chancellor has been clear, the prime minister and the chancellor are not making any commitments on individual policy areas at this point. But, as I say, the decisions will be seen through the prism of both what matters most to the most vulnerable … [The PM’s] view, and the chancellor’s view, is that at this point it is not right to start pre-empting a collective piece of work which needs to be carried out across government on all spending. Although the spokesperson said the commitment to the triple lock no longer applies, he said Truss was still committed to raising defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030. Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, has signalled he would resign if Truss were to abandon that pledge. Asked why Truss would not commit to the triple lock, but would commit to raising defence spending, the spokesperson said that the defence pledge related to 2030, and that it had been made in the context of the war in Ukraine and the UK’s membership of Nato. The questions about the triple lock were triggered by comments that Jeremy Hunt, the new chancellor, made in the Commons yesterday. Downing Street echoed the language used by Hunt, who told MPs: I am very aware of how many vulnerable pensioners there are, and of the importance of the triple lock. As I said earlier, I am not making any commitments on any individual policy areas, but every decision we take will be taken through the prism of what matters most to the most vulnerable. With the inflation rate for September expected to be around 10%, keeping the triple lock would see pensions rise by that amount for 2023-24. With Hunt looking for savings in all areas of government spending, it is not hard to see why abandoning it for a year might be tempting. Last year the triple lock was suspended for 2022-23 because Covid led to a freak 8% rise in earnings, as wages soared back up after the end of lockdown. Ministers argued that it would be unreasonable to give pensioners 8% because of distortions in the labour market, and instead a “double lock” was imposed, with pensioners guaranteed a rise in line with inflation or 2.5%. But the government had said the triple lock would apply again for 2023-24. We’re closing this liveblog now. Thanks for reading. Two vacant positions on the executive committee of the 1922 Committee have been filled by Tory former ministers after an election. The group of Conservative backbenchers oversees votes of confidence and leadership contests, making it instrumental in any possible moves to oust Liz Truss. The Walsall North MP, Eddie Hughes, has been elected vice-chair and the Lincoln MP, Karl McCartney, got a spot on the executive. The former government minister Steve Double has joined fellow Tory backbencher Maria Caulfield in saying he would not vote for an end to the triple lock on pensions. He quoted a tweet from Caulfied, in which she said she would not back such a move in the Commons, with the caption: “Nor me.” Liz Truss told Tory MPs from the European Research Group that she found axing her tax-slashing programme “painful” and did it “because she had to”. The PM’s deputy press secretary told reporters after the meeting in Westminster: “Touching on recent days, she talked about her disappointment in not being able to follow through on the tax cuts, although she stressed that of course, the NICs (national insurance contributions) cut has gone through. “She said she found it painful and that she did it because she had to.” Truss declined to answer questions from journalists as she left the meeting. Liz Truss is facing cabinet unrest over her plans for brutal public spending cuts across all departments after the disastrous mini-budget put major pledges at risk, including the pensions triple lock, writes Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot. The prime minister held a 90-minute cabinet meeting on Tuesday in which she warned ministers that “difficult decisions” lay ahead. The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, told them “everything is on the table” as he strives to find tens of billions of savings after ditching Truss’s economic plan. Health, education and welfare are among those expected to be hit. One Whitehall official said departments were already preparing for cuts “significantly higher” than previously planned, with Hunt’s tax U-turns estimated to raise £32bn, leaving a £38bn hole in the public finances. The Cabinet Office minister Brendan Clarke-Smith told Times Radio pensioners can breathe easily tonight: “We want to look after our pensioners. The triple lock was a manifesto commitment.” He was responding to comments from a No 10 spokesperson this afternoon that Liz Truss wasn’t making an commitments on government spending, including the triple lock. Clarke-Smith added: “But when you say we’re not taking anything off the table, I do think it’s reading too much into it to pick out specific things like triple lock, which hasn’t specifically been mentioned.” Gove: "Matter of when not if Truss is removed as prime minister" Michael Gove believes it is a matter of when not if Liz Truss is removed as prime minister. The former cabinet minister, who backed Rishi Sunak in the summer, also warned Britons to expect “a hell of a lot of pain in the next two months” due to the economic situation. At a private event, Gove was asked whether it was “no longer a question of whether Truss goes, but when she goes”. He agreed that was “absolutely right”. He added: “The question for any leader is: what happens when the programme or the platform on which you secured the leadership has been shredded?” In remarks first reported by the Guardian (see 16.54), the former education secretary said when Truss was a junior minister at that department he had been her boss — “a role which is now a jobshare between Jeremy Hunt and the bond markets”. Gove suggested Sir Keir Starmer’s first question at prime minister’s questions tomorrow could be: “Why?” Gove told the Guardian the comments had been made under the Chatham House rule. The Bank of England said it will delay the sale of government bonds to 1 November due to the fiscal announcement by the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, scheduled for 31 October. The central bank had been due to start buying UK government bonds, called gilts, at the end of this month. It comes after the Financial Times reported that the Bank would stall the bond sale in an effort to foster greater stability in the bond market. In a statement, it said: “The first gilt sales operation was scheduled to take place on October 31 2022 and proceed thereafter. “In light of the government’s fiscal announcement now scheduled for October 31 2022, the first gilt sale operation will now take place on November 1 2022.” Liz Truss made an “unequivocal commitment” to increasing defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030 at a meeting of European Research Group (ERG) Tory MPs, ERG chairman, Mark Francois has confirmed. He told reporters after the gathering: “We were delighted to hear her make an unequivocal commitment to spending 3% of GDP on defence by the end of the decade. “She was asked very specifically about that. She was very clear that that commitment remained. “So we’ve had a very positive meeting.” Jacob Rees-Mogg said Liz Truss’s meeting with Tory MPs from the European Research Group went “extremely well”. The business secretary made the comment to reporters as he left the meeting early. The European Research Group is a collection of Brexit-supporting Tory MPs. Liz Truss made "unequivocal commitment" to raise defence spending, Reuters told Liz Truss made an “unequivocal commitment” to raise defence spending to 3% of gross domestic product by 2030 at a meeting with MPs, a source told Reuters. Tory MP Maria Caulfield, a former minister, said she will not vote to end the pensions triple lock, after Downing Street indicated ministers could ditch the commitment. The MP for Lewes tweeted: “I will not be voting to end the pensions triple lock. “Pensioners should not be paying the price for the cost-of-living crisis whether caused by the war in Ukraine or mini budgets.” Liz Truss has arrived at a meeting of Tory MPs from the European Research Group (ERG) in Westminster. The PM smiled at reporters as she arrived, and table-banging was heard as she entered the room. Conservatives seen going into the meeting include the business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, and the ERG chairman, Mark Francois. The levelling up minister Paul Scully said Ben Wallace and James Heappey will have done “pretty well” in their roles if they are around to resign in 2030 over the pledge to spend 3% of national income on defence. Heappey, the armed forces minister, has publicly threatened to quit if the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, ditches the commitment to meet the threshold by that date. Scully told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme: “If Ben Wallace and James Heappey can be around to resign in 2030 when that pledge needs to be met, then they’ve done pretty well as defence secretary and minister of defence.” He added: “What we’re going to find with a number of issues, and I don’t know about defence, because it’s for the defence secretary and the chancellor to work together in the round, but what you’ll find is, you might find some reprofiling of increases. “That’s what I meant about things increasing a little bit more slowly … which [is] not quite the same as a cut.” Liz Truss has spoken to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, about the latest situation in Ukraine, Downing Street said. “The leaders discussed their deep concern at Russia’s recent barbaric attacks on civilian areas in Ukraine,” a No 10 spokesman said. “They agreed the UK and France will continue to work closely together with allies to support Ukraine and coordinate our response to Russian aggression.” Liz Truss has been described as “charmless, graceless, brainless and useless” by the former Conservative minister Edwina Currie. Asked if the PM can survive, she told GB News: “Oh, no, of course she can’t survive. “Oh my goodness. I’m going to put this on record: I think she is charmless, graceless, brainless and useless. “And what do I mean by that? Charmless: she doesn’t have any of the skills that, for example, Margaret Thatcher had, to put across her argument, to be persuasive, to charm people into supporting what she’s trying to do. “Graceless: even her last statement with all the I, I, I, I – you never got Margaret Thatcher doing that. I’m going to say this … you sack senior civil servants, you ignore all the systems that are there and then you wonder why the markets really get freaked out? “Brainless, because however valuable and useful the tax-cutting agenda is going to be, and it will be at some future point, it took Margaret nine years to get there. And you can’t do it now and she should have realised that, and as a result, she’s useless.” People could die because of Thérèse Coffey’s “ultra-libertarian ideological” reluctance to crack down on smoking and obesity, a Conservative ex-health minister has warned. The strongly worded criticism of the health secretary came from Dr Dan Poulter, a Tory MP and NHS doctor who served as a health minister in the coalition government from 2012 to 2015. Poulter claims Coffey’s “hostility to what the extreme right call ‘nanny statism’” is stopping her from taking firm action against the “major killers” of tobacco and bad diet. His intervention in an opinion piece for the Guardian was prompted by Coffey making clear that she opposed banning adults from smoking in cars containing children, even though the practice was outlawed in 2015 and is credited with reducing young people’s exposure to secondhand smoke. In the Commons debate on the public order bill the Conservative MP Sir Charles Walker launched a fierce attack on the government’s plans for serious disruption prevention orders. These are designed for use against people who repeatedly stage disrputive protests, such as the Just Stop Oil activists. They could be banned from particular places, or required to wear tags. Breaching an order will be a criminal offence, with a maximum penalty of up to six months in jail. Walker said he was totally opposed to the proposed orders. He told MPs: They leave me absolutely cold. In fact, I go as far as to say they are appalling. Absolutely appalling, because there are plenty of existing laws that can be utilised to deal with people who specialise in making other people’s lives miserable … The idea that in this country, we are going to ankle tag someone who has not been convicted in a court of law ... I mean, I tell you what, those Chinese in their embassy will be watching this very closely at the moment, they might actually be applying for some of this stuff when we pass it in this place, as I suspect we will. This is as unconservative as our budget of a few weeks ago. This is not what the Conservative party does. We believe in proportionate laws, like we used to believe in sound money. So I will be voting against this. I will be joining with honourable members across the house to vote against this piece of legislation. That’s all from me for today. My colleague Nadeem Badshah is now taking over.