Millions of potential voters in marginal constituencies face punishing rises in their mortgage repayments over the coming months and years. The government is in disarray on the issue and is largely to blame for the mess. Labour has spied an opportunity to hammer the Conservatives: it is talking about a ‘Tory mortgage penalty’ and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves is jumping on the bandwagon clamouring for mortgage payers to get help. But, if Labour goes too far in its demands, it could pay a heavy price.

With inflation stubbornly high, and the Bank of England rapidly losing credibility, mortgage rates are soaring. A two-year fixed rate that cost less than 2 per cent a couple of years ago could soon hit 7 per cent or more, tripling the monthly repayments at a time when household finances are already under strain.

A mortgage bail-out would be ruinously expensive

The Liberal Democrats have already called for a bail-out fund. So have some Tories, including former party chair Jake Berry. And if the SNP can get the police out of their gardens for a few minutes they will no doubt join in (‘We need to be rescued from English interest rates’).

Now Reeves is hinting she could make a similar demand on the government. As well as blaming the rise in inflation on the government – and implausibly claiming that her ‘growth plan’, including such gems as banning relatively cheap gas from the North Sea, will bring the rate down – Reeves is calling on the government to force lenders to allow their borrowers to switch flexible rates if they need help. She has not quite called for a full bail-out yet. But she is edging closer and closer.

Sure, it is easy to understand the temptation to do so. Plenty of voters will be furious with the government, with some justification. After the furlough scheme and the energy bill rescue, Brits are also used to being regularly offered big dollops of free cash from the government. The trouble is, doing so on this occasion will be a disaster.

It only takes a moment looking at the figures to work out that a mortgage bail-out would be ruinously expensive. There is £1,6750 billion of outstanding mortgage debt in the UK. At 5 per cent, the interest on that alone comes to £80 billion a year, or more than the cost of the furlough scheme and the energy rescue. At 7.5 per cent, which is where mortgage rates will soon be, it is £120 billion a year.

Of course, a rescue scheme may only cover part of that. But whatever form it takes one thing is surely clear: it will be a huge sum of money and one that would quickly overwhelm the ability of the government to do anything else. The Tories have made plenty of mistakes in their handling of the economy. But, for now, at least, it is doing one thing correctly: resisting demands for a mortgage bail-out.