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Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailAlok Sharma has said he will not support Rishi Sunak’s “smoke and mirrors” oil and gas bill.The former cabinet member and Cop26 president said the legislation is a “total distraction, which frankly changes nothing”.And he accused the prime minister of “chopping and changing” climate policies, reinforcing “the unfortunate perception about the UK rolling back from climate action”.On Monday, Mr Sunak’s government will try to pass legislation requiring the North Sea regulator to invite applications for new oil and gas licences on an annual basis instead of the five-year average currently in place.Sharma said he will not support the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill when MPs vote on it laterCritics have accused the government of backing new production as a way to create a dividing line with Labour ahead of this year’s general election.Just 1 per cent of the oil from new licences granted in the North Sea would be used in the UK in 2030, according to analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).The ECIU said the bill will therefore have little impact on Britain’s energy security and do nothing to bring down household bills – which have soared since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Former energy secretary Mr Sharma told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I will not be voting for this bill.“As it is currently drafted, this bill is a total distraction… it is a smoke and mirrors bill which, frankly, changes nothing.”The MP said the North Sea Transition Authority can already grant licences when it deems necessary and “that will not change”.He added: “What this bill does do is reinforce that unfortunate perception about the UK rolling back from climate action. We saw this last autumn with the chopping and changing of some policies and actually not being serious about meeting our international commitments.“Just a few weeks ago at COP 28, the 28th UN climate conference, the UK government signed up to transition away from fossil fuels.“This bill is about doubling down on granting more oil and gas production licences. It’s actually the opposite of what we agreed to do… so I won’t be supporting it.”Meanwhile former Tory environment secretary Zac Goldsmith, who quit over Mr Sunak’s “apathy” toward climate change, urged Conservative MPs to reject the bill.“Conservatives are facing almost certain defeat at the election and now is not the time for colleagues to be slavishly obedient to a leadership that will not be there in a matter of months,” he said.Lord Goldsmith urged MPs to be on “the right side of history” and reject the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill.The Conservative Environment Network, a group representing around 150 Tories, said the benefits of the new bill “should not be overstated”. Director Sam Hall said oil and gas will still be needed during the transition to net zero, “albeit in shrinking amounts”. He said priority for energy security and tackling climate change should be to “rapidly reduce our demand for oil and gas” by building more renewables, improving energy efficiency and electrifying more of the economy.Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the offshore oil and gas bill was a “waste of time” designed to create a dividing line with his party.“It isn’t going to make any difference at all – zero impact – on energy bills,” Sir Keir told reporters as he pointed to comments from former ministers.Sir Keir said: “What you’ve got is a government that’s wasting its time trying to pass legislation to create a dividing line with the Labour party rather than to solve the problem.”The latest row came just days after the government’s former net zero tsar Chris Skidmore quit as an MP in opposition to the bill.In a scathing exit statement he said he could no longer continue as a Tory or “condone” the government because the PM’s environmental stance is “wrong and will cause future harm”.In a statement posted on Twitter/X, Mr Skidmore said: “As the former energy minister who signed the UK’s net zero commitment by 2050 into law, I cannot vote for a bill that clearly promotes the production of new oil and gas.“To fail to act, rather than merely speak out, is to tolerate a status quo that cannot be sustained. I am therefore resigning my party whip and instead intend to be free from any party-political allegiance.”Downing Street declined to say whether the aim of the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill is to increase the number of licences granted.“I’m not going to speculate on whether more licences will be granted, that’s a decision partly for the companies themselves,” Mr Sunak’s spokesman told journalists.Challenged over the fact the oil will be sold abroad rather than reserved for the domestic market, the official argued is is “preferable to have an international market which has more oil and gas from the UK and other countries which are stable, which are not authoritarian regimes”. More

Rishi Sunak says Post Office horizon scandal an ‘appalling miscarriage of justice’Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak would “strongly support” the body which reviews honours if it decided to look at revoking former Post Office boss Paula Vennells’ CBE in the wake of the Horizon scandal.There have been growing calls grow for the former Post Office chief executive to hand back her CBE after an ITV drama returned the widespread miscarriage of justice to the spotlight.The prime minister’s official spokesman said that Mr Sunak would “strongly support” the forfeiture committee “if they were to choose to investigate”.Earlier, a former Conservative cabinet minister said all workers wrongly convicted in the scandal should be exonerated because each of their cases is linked to “one single lie”.Sir David Davis, a senior Tory MP, is planning to raise the issue in the Commons as MPs return from the Christmas holidays and has called for an emergency debate. “All of the cases depend on one single lie, and that is nobody but the postmasters and mistresses could access their computers,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme earlier.Show latest update
1704725159Ed Davey being made ‘scapegoat’ for Post Office scandal – former Lib Dem leaderEd Davey is being made a “scapegoat” for the Post Office scandal, his former colleague and party leader Vince Cable has claimed.Mr Davey has been accused by Conservatives of not asking the “right questions” during his stint as Post Office minister in the early years of the coalition government. He has denied any wrongdoing, saying Post Office bosses lied to him on an “industrial scale”.“This is election year and it’s quite good for somebody to try to make a scapegoat of a Lib Dem,” Mr Cable told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme.Matt Mathers8 January 2024 14:451704724427Watch: Moment Sunak met with laughter as he tells Burnley factory workers they are getting tax cutThe prime minister visited workers at the VEKA factory, a PVC window system manufacturer, in Burnley on Monday 8 January, to tell them about the tax cuts.Mr Sunak explained how the new cut to the rate of national insurance, means that someone on an average salary of £35,000 a year will get a £450 tax cut.One worker responded by saying “Lovely”, which was met with a round of laughter by other workers.Watch the clip here: More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak would “strongly support” the body which reviews honours if it decided to look at revoking former Post Office boss Paula Vennells’ CBE in the wake of the Horizon IT scandal.There have been growing calls grow for the former Post Office chief executive to hand back her CBE after an ITV drama returned the miscarriage of justice to the spotlight.The PM’s official spokesman said that Mr Sunak would “strongly support” the forfeiture committee “if they were to choose to investigate”.A petition addressed to Sir Chris Wormald, the chair of the committee which re-examines honours, calling for Ms Vennells to lose her honour has already attracted more than one million signatures.Justice secretary Alex Chalk is meeting Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake on Monday to discuss how to help convicted branch managers clear their names. Mr Chalk will make a statement in the Commons later.The PM, speaking in Lancashire on Monday, defended the government’s response – but said ministers were now “on it” and wanted to speed up the compensation process for victims.“People should know that we are on it, and we want to make this right, that money has been set aside,” Mr Sunak said.Rishi Sunak during a visit to the Accrington Stanley Community Sports HubThe Tory leader added: “We will do everything we can to make this right for the people affected. It is simply wrong what happened. They shouldn’t have been treated like this.”Ms Vennells – who ran the Post Office while it routinely denied there was a problem with its Horizon IT system – has said she is “truly sorry” for the “suffering” caused to sub-postmasters wrongly convicted of offences.More than 700 Post Office branch managers were convicted after faulty Fujitsu accounting softwar Horizon made it look like money was missing from their shops.Mr Hollinrake last month said calls to strip her of the CBE honour should be considered, while campaigning Labour MP Kevan Jones has long backed such a move.Labour’s shadow environment secretary Steve Reed said on Monday the honour is an “insult” and should be handed back. “I do think she should give that back,” he told TalkTV.Calls have grown for ex-Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells to lose her CBEOn Monday Sir Keir Starmer called for prosecution powers to be stripped from the Post Office and previous convictions looked at again, as well as calling on the Sunak government to “get on” with compensation.No 10 on Monday did not say whether removing prosecution powers would be among the options considered by Mr Chalk and Mr Hollinkrake – but Mr Sunak’s spokesman said ministers were “looking at what went wrong and what lessons can be learned”.Ahead of his statement in the Commons, Mr Hollinrake said interim payments of up to £168,000 had been made to known victims. The Post Office minister – who said 64 per cent of known victims have accepted full settlement – said he is “working day and night to do more”.The scandal is top of the agenda as politicians return to Westminster after the Christmas break, with senior Tory David Davis and former Labour minister Mr Jones pushing for an emergency debate on the issue.Keir Starmer, who mets residents in Loughborough, East Midlands hit by flooding, says the government must ‘get on’ with compensation The Labour leader, speaking during a visit in Loughborough, said: “I think that the prosecution should be taken out of the hands of the Post Office and given to the Crown Prosecution Service.”“And these convictions, the remaining convictions, need to be looked at en masse,” said Sir Keir, before adding: “The government could pass legislation, so obviously we’d support that if they did.”The public inquiry into the scandal has uncovered dozens of covert recordings of senior Post Office staff – including Ms Vennells – discussing the scandal, according to The Times.Around 80 recordings will be sent to participants, including former Post Office postmasters, in the days ahead. “They’re conversations with Post Office top brass including Paula Vennells. It’s very damning,” an inquiry source said.Ms Vennells has reportedly hired the top legal firm Mishcon de Reya to represent her as she prepares to give evidence at the public inquiry later this year. She said in 2022 that she was “truly sorry for the suffering caused to wrongly prosecuted sub-postmasters and their families”.Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has “serious questions to answer” over his role in the Horizon IT scandal, former Post Office branch managers have said.Sir Ed Davey says he wishes he could have done more as Post Office minister Sir Ed, who was leader was postal affairs minister from 2010 to 2012 and has been accused of “fobbing off” victims. Jo Hamilton, who led a landmark appeal for postmasters, told The Times: “He always calls for other people’s resignations, now it’s time for him to look in the mirror.”The Lib Dem leader has taken to Twitter 31 times to call for public figures to resign their positions since becoming Lib Dem leader in April 2019. A spokesman for Sir Ed said “in hindsight he wishes he could have done more to help them”.Tory Treasury minister Bim Afolami told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the Lib Dem had a duty to explain why he did not “ask the right questions” while in government.But Sir Vince Cable, former Lib Dem leader, told the programme that Sir Ed was being made a “scapegoat” by the Tories because it is an election year.Nigel Farage said Sir Keir should explain why he did not intervene in the Horizon IT scandal while he was director of public prosecutions from 2008 to 2013. “He has serious questions to answer,” the ex-Brexit Party leader tweeted on X.There has been fresh public backlash to the scandal after ITV aired a drama about the scandal last week starring actor Toby Jones. Reports suggest since Mr Bates Vs The Post Office was broadcast, 50 new potential victims have approached lawyers.Scotland Yard said on Friday that officers are “investigating potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions”. The Metropolitan Police had already been looking into potential offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice in relation to investigations carried out by the Post Office. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailWatch as Rishi Sunak holds a question-and-answer session in northern England, the latest stop on a tour around the country to talk to voters before an election expected later this year.The prime minister has vowed to “continue to confront the difficult challenges” as parliament returns for 2024.A Downing Street source said Mr Sunak was determined to “not take the easy way out” in a year that is likely to see a general election.MPs returned to Westminster following their Christmas break on Monday 8 January.Mr Sunak said last week that it is his “working assumption” the UK will “have a general election in the second half of this year”.The stance opens the door for him to call a potential autumn general election.Over the weekend, Sir Keir Starmer said he suspected the prime minister was “putting vanity before country” by wanting to mark two years in power — an anniversary that falls on 25 October — before sending the country to the polls. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak has been forced to defend his flagship Rwanda plan after leaked documents suggested he harboured significant doubts about the controversial scheme – and argued for it to be scaled back. The prime minister said it had been his job when chancellor to scrutinise “every proposal” that involved spending taxpayers’ money.He insisted that it would be “wrong” to infer from that that he did not back the policy to deport asylum seekers.But the prime minister repeatedly said he had not read the documents, leaked to the BBC, which have led to accusations he has been “conning” the public over the plan.Mr Sunak was unsure the plan would achieve its ultimate goal, to deter channel crossings in small boats, a month before it was unveiled by then prime minister Boris Johnson, according to the papers.He was also concerned about the cost of sending asylum seekers to the African country and wanted to limit the numbers.Labour have accused Mr Sunak of trying to con the public and called on the government to publish the papers. The row comes as the Tory leader faces a crunch battle with his own party to get new emergency legislation through the Commons, after the Supreme Court ruled his Rwanda plan unlawful.Losing the vote could place the future of the scheme and even Mr Sunak’s leadership in peril. MPs on the right of the party have warned Mr Sunak he faces electoral “oblivion” unless flights to Rwanda get airborne. His former immigration minister Robert Jenrick has also threatened to lead a parliamentary revolt to try to toughen the bill, warning if the PM did not strengthen the new laws then he would lay amendments next week to ensure they were “sufficiently robust”.Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Mr Sunak said: “My job (was) to ask probing questions of every proposal that crossed my desk as chancellor.“Whether you have doubts about it or not, you shouldn’t come to it with a preconceived notion that everything is fine when you are spending taxpayers’ money, of course you shouldn’t.“You should always ask probing questions, you should always approach things from a position of scepticism to ensure that you get value for money for taxpayers. That is the job of the chancellor and the Treasury when things crossed their desk.“But to infer from that that I don’t believe in the scheme or the principle of deterrence is wrong. I was doing my job to get good value for money for taxpayers.“I went through that process, funded the scheme with the prime minister and, as prime minister myself, I have made sure that we have a similar deterrent working with Albania, and I have made the point that it is because Albania is working that we should have confidence that the Rwanda scheme will work too.”Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Mr Sunak had become the latest senior Conservative to indicate they “don’t believe the (Rwanda) plans will work”.Home secretary James Cleverly has not denied that he privately described the policy as “bat****”, before he was moved to the Home Office. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe government is examining ways to speed up the appeals process for wrongly convicted Post Office branch managers after what has been described as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history. Moves could include exonerating all those involved or removing the Post Office’s ability to investigate or prosecute suspecter officers, Rishi Sunak has confirmed. Mr Sunak told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme that ministers should look at “every which way we can” to help those embroiled in the scandal. MPs are expected to tackle ministers over the issue when parliament re-opens after the Christmas holidays on Monday. There has been widespread public outcry after ITV aired a drama, Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, based on the scandal.Asked if there could be exonerations or the government could remove the Post Office’s ability to investigate and prosecute, the prime minister said: “The justice secretary (Alex Chalk) is looking at the things that you’ve described, it wouldn’t be right to pre-empt that process, obviously there’s legal complexity in all of those things but he is looking at exactly those areas.”He added: “Everyone has been shocked by watching what they have done over the past few days and beyond and it is an appalling miscarriage of justice.“Obviously it’s something that happened in the Nineties but actually seeing it and hearing about it again just shows what an appalling miscarriage of justice it is for everyone affected and it’s important that those people now get the justice they deserve, and that’s what the compensation schemes are about.“The government has paid out about £150m to thousands of people already. Of course, we want to get the money to the people as quickly as possible, that’s why there are interim payments of up to, I think, £600,000 that can be made. There are three different schemes available and for anyone affected they should come forward.”The Post Office was actually prosecuting people caught up in the scandal as recently as 2015.Former Tory minister John Redwood said: “The Post Office scandal shows the dangers of a nationalised industry having special powers to abuse and prosecute its staff.”Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon accounting software made it appear as though money was missing from outlets, and branch managers were forced to pay back thousands of pounds.Hundreds of people were convicted based on the computer faults and many are yet to have their convictions quashed. Scotland Yard said on Friday night that officers were “investigating potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions”, for example “monies recovered from subpostmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions”.The police had already been looking into potential offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice.Kevan Jones, the Labour MP for North Durham, who sits on the Horizon compensation advisory board, told the Sunday Times: “It is quite clear from the evidence presented to the public inquiry and in court, that the victims of this scandal should have their convictions quashed and their good names restored.”His constituent, Tom Brown, a former subpostmaster in Newcastle upon Tyne, was wrongly accused of stealing £85,000 in 2008. He lost his home and was made bankrupt.Former subpostmaster Lee Castleton, who was pursued through the courts and went bankrupt, said “more pressure” was needed to ensure victims get help.He told the BBC: “It has been very difficult to push our cause. We are just people from your village shop or your local post office. It is really hard to draw up support and it has been very difficult to get people to believe.”He added: “I would like people to contact their MP and put pressure on people to help us. The group has always needed help. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that support makes this work. It is very lonely being the only one, as the Post Office would constantly tell each of the victims.“Now we are together in this and we just need to keep walking forward no matter what the punches are, no matter how hard the war gets. We just need to keep pushing.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailKeir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of allowing “vanity” to delay the date of the general election as the battle for the keys to Downing Street becomes increasingly personal. The Labour leader hit out at the prime minister, saying he suspected he wanted to stay in No 10 until later this year to hit a milestone of two years in office. Mr Sunak’s decision this week to announce an election was likely only in the second half of 2024 was putting “vanity before country”, he added.He also rounded on Conservative attacks over his plans to borrow £28 billion to invest in green policies, saying “bring it on”, and accused the Tory leader of floating future tax cuts because he was out of ideas. For his part Mr Sunak used an interview with the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme to repeatedly focus on Sir Keir, even suggesting questions the Labour leader should be asked when he makes an appearance on the same show next week. He said tax cuts paid for by cutting the benefits bill were about “fairness” because Britain’s welfare system was “not working”, after the numbers signed off sick from work tripled in 10 years. Ministers would bring about reforms that meant “everybody who can work does work”, he said, adding that he was looking to control public spending “across the board”.Sir Keir said talk of pre-election tax cuts was the Prime Minister acting “in his own self-interest” and was the “wrong way to govern”.”He has run out of ideas,” he said: “They are desperately thrashing around and trying to find the dividing lines to go into the election.”It is not part of a strategy for growing the economy, it is simply picking tax cuts that the Prime Minister thinks might create a dividing line going into the election.”That is the wrong way to govern.” He added: ““If he had a plan, he would set the date and he should set the date because at the moment it is very hard to see how him continuing in Government improves the lives of anybody in the country, so there is drift.“I can’t help feeling that all he really wants to do is to get two years clocked up of his own premiership, and that means he is putting vanity before country.”He said that the tax burden on working people was too high, however, but declined to set out which taxes he would like to see reduced.He also said he was “absolutely up” for a fight on Labour’s pledge to deliver clean power by 2030.”But look, it is absolutely clear to me that the Tories are trying to weaponise this issue, the £28 billion etcetera. This is a fight I want to have…so if they want that fight, bring it on.”He also said he was kept up at night worrying about the impact of his job on his family and said he wants to “desperately try to protect” his two teenage children. He added: “The only thing that keeps me up at night, the only thing that worries me is our children, because they’re 13 and 15, that’s difficult ages.”It will impact them, we don’t name them in public, we don’t do photographs with them, they go to the local school and I just desperately try to protect them in that way, but I know it’s going to be harder and I do worry about that.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak has been warned that falling mortgage rates will not boost his electoral hopes as 1.3million households face higher payments before the general election.The PM had hoped a better economic outlook and falling rates would provide a boost in time for an autumn election, saying “2024 is going to be a better year”.But House of Commons research, commissioned by the Lib Dems and seen by The Independent, reveals 1.3 million fixed-rate mortgage deals will expire before Britons go to the polls for an election expected in October.And, after the PM was accused of “bottling” a May contest, the figures showed an additional 600,000 families will face mortgage hikes before the election.Economists, mortgage brokers and pollsters have now warned the PM that voters heading to the polls will decide based on “how they feel in their pockets, not what the stats say about the economy”.And they have said that while it is positive mortgage rates are falling, voters can only expect to be made “slightly less poor than they would have”.The prime minister has been warned falling mortgage rates will not boost the Tories’ chances at a general election At the beginning of 2022, an average two-year fixed-rate mortgage carried 2.38 per cent interest.At the beginning of this year, that had risen to 5.93 per cent, meaning monthly repayments would be £395 higher, according to data from Moneyfacts.While that is £116 less than the payments homeowners would have faced when mortgage rates spiked after Liz Truss’s mini-budget, it could still add close to £5,000 to a household’s annual bills.For the same household renewing a five-year deal, they would still face a £291 monthly increase.Pollster Luke Tryl, UK director at More in Common, told The Independent the “key point” is that the public decide their vote on how they feel, not “what the stats say about the economy, inflation or interest rates”.“The reality for most people isn’t that they’ll be paying less, but instead they still be paying more and seeing a bigger part of their pay package going on mortgage and other interest payments,” he said.Mr Tryl added: “Saying to people ‘but you could have been paying even more’ isn’t a very compelling electoral argument.”And the Liberal Democrats, who commissioned the House of Commons research, said it showed more households face “mortgage misery” the longer Mr Sunak waits to call an election. The Institute of Fiscal Studies said that while those re-mortgaging now will get a better deal than a few weeks ago, “they will still face a sharp hike in costs when rolling off a fixed rate”.Senior research economist David Sturrock told The Independent: “That’s because the interest rates they face are still well above those two to five years ago.”He said monthly repayments based on interest rates of 5 per cent would be £119 less than at 6 per cent, but still £221 more than the 3 per cent interest rates typically seen two years ago.Simon Pittaway, Senior Economist at the Resolution Foundation, told The Independent that mortgage rates spiked during Trussonomics under Mr Sunak’s predecessor. They peaked last year amid a slew of Bank of England interest rate hikes.And Mr Pittaway said that while mortgage rates falling is good news, “households having to re-mortgage this year should be under no illusions that they’ll be getting a cheaper deal”.The New Economics Foundation think tank said households renewing fixed-term mortgages this year will still face “far higher” bills than they would have been paying.“Although mortgage rates are falling slightly, they are still much higher than they were for many years prior to the disastrous Truss mini-budget just over two years ago,” he said.Mr Sunak ruled out a spring vote and raised the prospect of a lengthy and bitter campaign on Thursday when he confirmed it was his “working assumption” that he would call the election in the second half of the year.Conservative polling guru Robert Hayward told The Independent that the PM was “wise” to wait in the hope of an economic revival.The Tory peer thinks the “general perception” of the Tories could improve because of the slightly rosier outlook for first-time buyers. “The longer you can put between the Truss period and the election the better for the government,” Lord Hayward said.The Tories would need a major rebound to catch Labour in the polls, with Sir Keir’s party commanding a 19-point lead. It is the biggest lead a year out from an election for any party since Sir Tony Blair’s landslide 1997 win.And mortgage broker Lewis Shaw, of Shaw Financial Services, told The Independent: “The notion that the electorate will celebrate with glee at being made slightly less poor than they would have is for the birds.“That’s akin to only getting whipped twice a day rather than the normal three. The current government has directly and consciously contributed to the crisis millions of households are facing and the crisis millions are already in.”Labour piled on the pressure over rising mortgage bills Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Sarah Olney warned the longer Mr Sunak waits to call an election, the more families will face “mortgage misery”. “People are seeing their monthly mortgage payments go up by hundreds of pounds a month, while the government is bogged down in endless chaos and infighting,” she said.Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones MP, said: “Interest rates beginning to fall is good news but the 197,000 homeowners coming off fixed rate mortgages this month alone will still experience huge hikes in their monthly payments, which are typically set to increase by £240.”Darryl Dhoffer of The Mortgage Expert said: “The Tories are trying to paint falling rates as a victory lap, but for many mortgage holders, it’s more like a sucker punch disguised as a glove tap.“My clients who locked in at historically low rates three years ago are now staring at a doubling of their monthly payments. Falling rates won’t help them dodge that uppercut.”Craig Fish, managing director of the brokerage Lodestone, told The Independent: “People are now, or soon will be, paying more than ever for their mortgages and daily expenses, leaving a bitter taste that only a change in government seems likely to remedy.”A Treasury spokesman said: “Interest rates are high across the developed world as economies work to tackle high inflation and the UK is no different. But now inflation has halved, the economy is turning a corner – starting with tax cuts for 27 million people this month, saving the average earner £450 a year.“We are also supporting households worth £3,700 between 2022 and 2025 and our Mortgage Charter can make it easier for people to manage monthly repayments and gives extra protections against repossessions.” More