Explaining the Conservatives’ most striking manifesto pledge last Thursday, Jeremy Hunt left no room for doubt. The idea of a cap on social care contributions was “unfair” and so "we're being completely explicit in our manifesto that we're dropping it”.

Instead, the manifesto was going to impose a “floor” of £100,000, meaning that pensioners would get to keep a maximum of £100,000 rather than having to pay the £72,000 maximum promised in the 2015 manifesto.

Mr Hunt helpfully told Radio 4 listeners exactly why a cap was unfair. If someone owned a house worth, say, £2 million and had care costs of £200,000, they would not have to pay the full amount “because they're capped”. The people who would end up paying would be “taxpayers, younger families who are possibly themselves struggling to make ends meet”.

Fast forward four days to Monday morning, and Mr Hunt was telling a completely different story.