With the energy price climbdown, Liz Truss has probably sealed her own fate

theguardian.com:

Throughout a torturous month for the prime minister, there was one achievement that Liz Truss could still claim: the energy price freeze. Now she has abandoned the last weapon she has in her armoury. In doing so, she has probably sealed her own fate.

Jeremy Hunt will now end the energy price freeze in April, after six months rather than two years. The universal policy had its critics, but it was the one announcement of her premiership that Truss could genuinely claim would alleviate the anxiety and suffering of millions.

It was more generous than Labour’s policy, one of the only talking points Tory MPs could grasp at when they were hit by oncoming volleys in media interviews.

Even at a cabinet meeting on Monday morning, Truss is said to have continued with her mantra that she had saved the British people from misery this winter and heralded the tax cuts in her growth plan. The only tax cuts remaining are the one to stamp duty and the cancellation of the national insurance rise.

When Hunt took the floor that afternoon, he methodically dismantled every other aspect of her platform and pulled the rug from under her one popular policy.

Now, not only will people see their mortgages and rents rise but they are no longer guaranteed long-term protection from rising energy bills. Though international gas prices are falling, early predictions from analysts suggests they will still be crippling. Already, the freeze at an average of £2,500 is double what households were paying last year.

And there are more humiliations to come for the prime minister. Almost all of what she has promised as PM now looks economically or politically impossible. Truss promised to raise defence spending by 2.5% of GDP by 2026 and 3% by 2030 – the kind of