A senior Cabinet minister last night ramped up pressure on Boris Johnson to cut taxes, rounding off a bruising day for the Prime Minister.
In a rare public intervention on domestic policy, former Brexit negotiator Lord Frost said low taxes were 'the formula for success as a country'.
He also said the UK must move away from EU rules so Britain can 'step up and compete at a global level'.
After 'shambolic' speech to businesses, No10 sources voice 'concern' – then Brexit chief weighs in on tax cuts
It came as the Commons narrowly voted through the Government's planned changes to social care with a majority of just 26 after a sizable rebellion by Tory backbenchers.
Senior Conservative MPs warned they would not back the new policy to cap care costs in England, which critics argued had been watered down to be less generous.
Ministers were unable to say whether the change to the £86,000 cap on care costs would fulfil an election pledge to guarantee no-one would have to sell their home to pay for care.
Conservative critics joined experts and Labour MPs in warning the move to count only individual payments towards the cap, and not local authority contributions, would cost poorer recipients more in assets than the wealthy.
But the Government worked to see off a potential defeat in the Commons on Monday evening and MPs backed the amendment 272 votes to 246, majority 26.
Earlier Mr Johnson was forced to apologise to the CBI for losing his thread for more than 20 seconds during a speech to the business lobby group's annual conference.
He also raised eyebrows by making repeated references to the children's cartoon character Peppa Pig.
Mr Johnson had been attempting to mend fences with big business during his CBI speech, following clashes over Brexit.
The BBC last night quoted a 'senior Downing Street source' that claimed the speech was 'shambolic' and that there was 'a lot of concern inside the building' about the Prime Minister.
The source added: 'It's just not working. Cabinet needs to wake up and demand serious changes otherwise it'll keep getting worse.
'If they don't insist, he just won't do anything about it.' No 10 declined to comment on the claim. But a Government insider dismissed the charge as 'total nonsense', adding: 'That is absolutely not the feeling in the building – it couldn't be more wrong.'
In a rare public intervention on domestic policy, former Brexit negotiator Lord Frost, pictured said low taxes were 'the formula for success as a country'
Tory MP Peter Bone also rallied round, saying: 'The idea that the Government is falling apart because the PM's speech got a bit mixed up is clearly ridiculous. The BBC should focus on the issues.'
A source told the Daily Mail that the
