THERESA May’s “strong and stable” election campaign went “weak and wobbly” yesterday after the Prime Minister was forced into a humiliating U-turn over the so-called dementia tax.

Launching their manifesto last week, the Tories proposed massive reforms to social care in England and Wales in a bid to pass the burden of the cost of care on to the individual and away from the state.

The policy, which was reportedly included in the Tory programme for government at the last minute by one of May’s top aides, would have meant thousands of elderly people receiving residential social care or care in their own homes having to fund almost all of the cost.

In their original plans the Tories said they would take all but a person’s last £100,000 of assets, and promised that people would not have to sell their homes to pay for care.

Labour labelled the policy a “dementia tax” as it adversely affects patients who have complex, long-term conditions that don’t qualify for NHS care.

Polls carried out at the end of last week showed the policy had hit the Prime Minister’s seemingly impregnable popularity, with her lead over Jeremy Corbyn halving.

After a damaging weekend May backed down, using her speech at the Welsh Tory manifesto launch to announce a new cap on how much people would be expected to pay for care.

The Prime Minister insisted it was a “clarification” rather than a U-turn and that this had always been the plan.

But the manifesto never mentioned a cap. Tory Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt had just days ago told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the policy was a rejection of the lifetime cap on care costs to which the party committed in its 2015 election manifesto.

“Yes, and not only are we dropping it but we are dropping it ahead of a General Election and we’re being completely explicit in our manifesto that we’re dropping it,” said Hunt.

May insisted the “basic principles” of the policy were unchanged.

“We will make sure nobody has to sell their family home to pay for care. We will make sure there’s an absolute limit on what people need to pay ... so you will always have something to pass on to your family,” the Tory leader said.

A Tory government, she added, would “come forward with a consultation paper, a government green paper” which would advise on the level of the cap.

The Prime Minister said this was nothing new, but a response to “fake claims” and “scare-mongering” from Labour.

“Nothing has changed, nothing has changed, we are offering a long-term solution for the sustainability of social care for the future,” the Prime Minister said, when a journalist asked her if there would be any more U-turns before the election.

“Nothing has changed,” she repeated.

News of the new cap was broken by the London Evening Standard, edited by former Chancellor George Osborne, who was sacked from his front bench role by May.

“It is not encouraging that the original proposals were so badly thought through,” said the paper’s editorial.

The SNP’s deputy leader Angus Robertson said it was an “utter humiliation for Theresa May.”

He added: “The U-turn betrays the reality of the Tory leadership – that of a weak and wobbling Prime Minister.

“Just four days after launching their manifesto, Mrs May has crumbled under criticism and announced this embarrassing reverse.

“Today’s U-turn follows the climbdown over National Insurance policy in the last Budget. So the question now is what else is set to be ditched from an unravelling manifesto, by a Tory party which is clearly in panic?”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “They haven’t explained to the millions of people who are desperately worried at the moment about what kind of care they are going to get in the future, desperately worried for children as well about how their parents are going to be looked after.

“This is a government in chaos and confusion."

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “PM not so strong and stable after all ... and can’t be trusted to protect pensioners.”