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PRIME Minister Sunak made clear in his interview on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme yesterday morning that mortgage holders and public sector workers are to be hit and hit again under the Tories.
‘Of course I know that it’s a challenging time,’ multi-millionaire Sunak told Kuenssberg, going on: ‘Inflation, Laura, is the thing that causes people financial pain.
‘Inflation is the enemy, because inflation eats the pound in your pocket. It makes your pay cheque go less far. It eats into your savings. It pushes up prices. It puts at risk jobs and livelihoods. Inflation is the enemy that we need to conquer.
Kuenssberg intervened: ‘Interest rates going up are also an enemy for many people.’
Sunak came back: ‘Interest rates are a consequence of high inflation and I think we should be very clear about what is doing damage to people, what is causing people challenges in their day-to-day living and their budgeting is inflation and it’s inflation that needs to be the priority for the government to stamp out and I’m prepared to do that.
‘And again, that’s why it’s my number one priority, so people can have some confidence in it, but also, I was one of the first politicians to start talking about the dangers of inflation.’
Kuenssberg said: ‘So you are prepared to see rates continue to rise in order to squeeze inflation. But do you admit that that is going to hurt a lot of people? We are inundated with emails from people saying their mortgages are going to double, saying they can’t afford their rent, saying they’re just not going to be able to afford it on top of everything else that is going up. Do you admit it’s going to hurt?’
Sunak replied: ‘First of all, with interest rates, yes, they’re going up in the UK and I fully support the Bank of England in their actions.’
He went on: ‘Part of my job as Prime Minister is to put it into context and explain to people what is happening …
‘My responsibility is to manage the government’s borrowing responsibly. If we end up borrowing too much money, and we talked about public sector pay being a good example of that, that will put further fuel on the fire of the inflation challenge and will just mean that inflation is going to be here for longer, be worse and interest rates will be higher for longer.
‘That’s why I have to take what are difficult and oftentimes not popular decisions, but they are the right long-term decisions for the country. I’m not going to shy away from that. I spent all last summer talking about it. I talked about it as Chancellor and as Prime Minister I’m going to do the things that will ultimately benefit the country.
‘There is no point in me doing something that sounds popular and nice today, for example on public sector pay, I will be giving with one hand and we would just be taking with the other through higher inflation.’
He concluded: ‘I’ve never said that it’s not challenging. I’ve never said that this is not going to be a difficult time to get through, but what I want to give people reassurance and confidence with is that we’ve got a plan, the plan will work and we will get through this.’
Appearing after Sunak on the BBC show, Labour’s Lisa Nandy had no disagreement with Sunak’s plea for confidence in his programme of escalating attacks on the working class, responding: ‘The government must not just talk a good game, but make sure that it happens.’
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