Rishi Sunak gives hope for struggling families as he promises his plan to tackle cost of living crisis will work

RISHI Sunak today rallied struggling families to hold their nerve in cost of living hell – saying only his plan will ultimately crush inflation.

In his fiercest defence yet, the PM said he is willing to be unpopular by disappointing public sector workers demanding fat pay rises. 

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And despite Tory fury he backed the Bank of England squeezing homeowners by jacking up interest rates. 

Declaring inflation the “enemy”, a testy Mr Sunak said: “We’ve got to hold our nerve, stick to the plan and we will get through this.”

Ministers are believed to be prepared to block big wage hikes for public sector workers if the pay review body recommends rises of more than 6 per cent. 

Mr Sunak said he would act “responsible” even if that gave him some short-term flack from angry workers.

He told the BBC: “When it comes to public sector pay I’m going to do what I think is affordable, what I think is responsible.

“Now that may not always be popular in the short term, but it’s the right thing for the country.”

He vowed to “stay the course” in his plan to halve inflation, and said he supported the Bank of England raising rates to 5 percentage points despite the misery for mortgage owners.

Bank boss Andrew Bailey has been slammed by many Tory MPs for failing to tame inflation earlier and allowing it to spiral well beyond the 2 per cent target. 

But the PM said: “I think the Bank of England’s track record, including the governor’s track record, over a long period of time has been that inflation has been managed appropriately and people should have the confidence that inflation will fall back to target.”

Although insisting he will win the next election, Mr Sunak told struggling Brits: “I have to take what are difficult and often at times not popular decisions.

“But they’re the right long-term decisions for the country. I am not going to shy away from that.”

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk