OVER 12,000 households in Wirral will face an eyewatering jump in mortgage repayments next year as a result of the Conservatives crashing the economy, Birkenhead MP Mick Whitley has warned.

Analysis by the Labour Party using Bank of England data showed that homeowners coming off two-year fixed term mortgages in October 2022 are set to pay £500 a month more on average after the government’s disastrous mini-Budget handed unfunded tax cuts to the wealthiest. 

Further investigation has found that the number of people refinancing on the terms above is forecast to be 1.8m people out of a total 6.8m mortgage holders – or one in four of all mortgage holders in the UK.

That means an estimated 12,365 households in Wirral will be paying hundreds of pounds a month more from next year as rates top 6%.  

Lisa Nandy MP, Shadow Housing Secretary, said: “The Conservatives have sacrificed homeowners across the country who now have a Tory premium to pay on their mortgages. Young people in Wirral who have scrimped and saved for a deposit have in the blink of an eye been thrown under the bus.

“This is not simply an unfortunate mistake. It is an unforgivable act of national self-harm that has crashed the economy.”

Mr Whitley, Member of Parliament for Birkenhead, said: “Liz Truss may have tossed her Chancellor to the scrap heap, but the damage has already been done - and my constituents will continue to pay the pay price for a Tory crisis, made in Downing Street.

"Soaring mortgage rates are set to have a devastating impact on homeowners who are already struggling to stay afloat in the midst of the worst cost of living crisis in a generation, as well as on all those who are seeing their dreams of home ownership slip away.

“But I’m also deeply concerned about what this will mean for the very worst-off in my community - people living in the private-rented sector. There’s no doubt that rising rates will be passed on to tenants in the forms of higher rents and there’s a very real danger that that could lead to a surge in homelessness this Christmas. A radical course correction is now badly needed.

"It’s time that Liz Truss abandons her fantasy economics and steps up with a badly-needed package of financial support to help people get through this winter - beginning with a commitment to uprating benefits in line with inflation.”