The Daily Mail has been mocked for a front page it published last week, in which Theresa May’s manifesto was heralded as “remarkably honest”.
Images of the paper’s bold headline were shared on social media in light of the Tories’ unprecedented u-turn on their flagship social care policy, which the Mail had initially highlighted.
Friday’s front page declared of Theresa May: “At last, a PM not afraid to be honest with you.”
It praised the prime minister for putting “the needs of ordinary working families at the heart of a pragmatic plan to deliver a better deal for ‘mainstream Britain’”.
Unfortunately for the Mail, the Tories then promptly U-turned on their social care policy.
The prime minister announced that a cap on social care costs will now be included as an option in a consultation on reforms to be launched after the General Election
A cap on costs was promised by David Cameron in his 2015 manifesto, but was dropped from May’s manifesto which she launched on Thursday.
The climbdown prompted many to point out how the front page had not aged well...
Even the Mail’s own readers were less than impressed with the U-turn...
May has repeatedly assured voters that she and her party are the “strong and stable” option for Britain - but many people pointed out that such a drastic U-turn didn’t exactly seem to stick to this mantra.
In a sign of social care taking centre stage in the election battle, both the Tories and Labour have bought ads on Google which pop up when users of the search engine type in the phrase.
Revealing the changes to her policy, May accused Jeremy Corbyn of making “fake claims” about social care proposals.
She also insisted that “nothing has changed” in her policy.