As mortgage rates surge and a new Opinium poll finds Labour’s lead has jumped to 18 points, Rishi Sunak appeared on Laura Kuenssberg’s BBC show to insist that his plan is the right one. The interview was pre-recorded in the Downing Street garden yesterday, with Sunak commenting on the – now failed – attempted coup by Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and previewing his government’s long-term NHS workforce plan. However, the main portion of the at times, scrappy interview was spent on inflation and the consequences for mortgage holders.

Despite all the current problems, Sunak insisted that he would win the next election

Kuenssberg repeatedly asked Sunak whether he would admit that many voters would feel economic pain as a result of the government’s plans to bring down inflation. In reply, Sunak repeatedly pointed out that he had been one of the first politicians to warn of the dangers of inflation, when others were yet to take the prospect of rising interest rates seriously: ‘Of course I know it’s a challenging time… two years ago I started talking about inflation.’ Effectively, Sunak said that, despite the pain, there was no other option: ‘I want people to be reassured that we’ve got to hold our nerve, stick to the plan and we will get through this.’ The problem for Sunak is that despite naming halving inflation as his number one priority, there is a limit to what he can actually do. He also fuelled reports that the government could overrule independent pay bodies on public sector pay rises if they are deemed to be inflationary – arguing that high pay rises would be giving with one hand and taking away with the other.

While Sunak stopped short of praising Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey (whom several Tories have come out to criticise), he did say he supported the bank in its decision to raise interest rates, now at a 15-year high of 5 per cent. He also tried to point to bank flexibility for mortgage holders following Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s meeting on Friday with the heads of the biggest mortgage lenders (which includes a 12-month waiting time before repossessions). At times, it felt as though Sunak and Kuenssberg were talking over each other in more ways than one. Not only did the sometimes-tetchy interview see the pair frequently interrupt one another – ‘this is important’ was Sunak’s most common refrain – Kuenssberg kept asking about the pain people would feel while Sunak preferred to shift focus to the bigger picture.

Despite all the current problems, Sunak insisted that he would win the next election – arguing that Labour would make the economic picture worse with green borrowing, and insisting he would meet his five priorities eventually. The problem for Sunak is that many, even in his own party, fail to share his optimism. In his interview today, he offered some hope that things would improve in the medium term – but little for those worrying about how to get through the next few months.