Starmer promises economic stability to bring down ‘punishing’ mortgage costs

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Householders are being punished with high mortgage rates, Sir Keir Starmer said as he promised action to help bring them down.

The Prime Minister said restoring economic stability would help address the damage caused by the Tories, particularly in the Liz Truss mini-budget.

He said he had “doubled down” on the need to restore order to the economy to help ease the pain felt by mortgage holders and to attract investment to the UK.

Speaking to reporters accompanying him at the Nato summit in Washington, Sir Keir said: “Mortgages have gone through the roof because of the instability caused by the last government, in particular Liz Truss but not only Liz Truss.

“That is why we said before the election – and we’ve doubled down on it now – economic stability is the first step when it comes to growth of our economy.

“We need that stability in order to ensure that we can bring mortgages down.

“They are punishing people, I mean people coming off fixed-rate mortgages are almost invariably having to pay hundreds of pounds more per month.”

That meant there are households with two earners “who can’t afford the mortgage”.

He added: “We need to stabilise the economy for a secondary reason and that is to attract investment in and that will only come if there is a stable economic environment.

“That is the single biggest factor that is preventing investment into our country, there has been a destabilising economic effect and chaotic effect of the last few years.”