The prime minister said inflation was “enemy number one” and that he was doing everything he could to “catch up” on the issue. Sunak told The Times he understood the concerns of families now facing devastating rises in their monthly mortgage bills after the Bank of England raised key interest rates by 0.75 percentage points to 3% – their highest level in 15 years . “I totally understand the anxiety people have about mortgages. It’s one of the biggest bills people have,” he said. “So what I want to say to people is that I’m going to do everything I can to deal with this problem, to limit the rise in these mortgage rates. “I think inflation is the number one enemy, as Margaret Thatcher rightly said. Inflation has the biggest impact on those with the lowest incomes. I want to catch inflation.” The Bank of England has been forced to raise interest rates to curb rising prices and warned on Thursday that the country is facing its worst recession in a century. With an estimated £50bn black hole in the public finances, Mr Sunack said it was important the Government was honest with voters about the “trade-offs” the country faced in Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s upcoming Autumn Statement. “Everyone appreciates that the government cannot do everything. How does the government do it all? It just does it by borrowing money, which ultimately leads, as we’ve seen, to high inflation, loss of credibility, skyrocketing interest rates,” he said. Among the measures Sunak and Hunt are considering to tackle the shortfall are a further two-year freeze on the lifetime pension allowance and the introduction of VAT on electric vehicles for the first time, the Daily Telegraph reported. Sunak acknowledged that after Liz Truss’ disastrous tenure in No 10, the Conservatives urgently needed to rebuild public trust. He pointed to his own record as chancellor – when he introduced the Covid furlough regime – as why people should trust him when it comes to managing the economy. “I fully recognize that confidence has been damaged in recent weeks and months. I realize that trust is not given, trust is earned. My job is to regain people’s trust,” he said. “The one thing people will take away from the summer – I hope from my track record as chancellor – I am someone they can trust to understand the economy. I am someone they can trust to see us through a tough financial time. I have a track record of doing that.” Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Apart from the autumn statement, Sunak said the main issue on his mind in the previous 48 hours was the migration crisis in the English Channel. He defended Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s controversial claim that the south coast was facing an “invasion” of migrants – although he did not use the word. “What Suella did was convey a sense of the scale of the challenge we face, which is serious and unprecedented. There is no easy overnight solution to this challenge. But people should know that I am very committed to dealing with it,” he said. He also revealed he was at a TGI Friday’s in Teesside when he heard Truss had quit. He said: “In a sense I had moved on, I was thinking about what was next for me. I was hooked on it.” But he said he felt he had a “responsibility and duty” to stand up after discussing it with his wife, Aksatha Murthy. He also said he told Boris Johnson he would not run on a joint ticket with him, saying: “I was very clear with him about the fact that I had strong support from colleagues in parliament and I thought I was the best person to do the job. .”
