Prime Minister Rishi Sunak must be admired for sticking to his plan - a plan to fix his own party's incompetence

With inflation remaining stubbornly high – certainly much higher than Mr Sunak had suggested it might – and interest rates being jacked up to counter them, news then broke of five-year mortgage rates rising above six per cent for the first time since the brutal impact of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s calamitous mini-budget in September 2022. You would have to go back to the previous financial crisis of 2008 to witness mortgage products priced, in interest terms, above six per cent.

With the cost of living crisis hitting families hard, a phalanx of trade unions downing tools across multiple sectors and the all-too-near and present danger presented to the West by Russia, the backdrop to the inquisition could not be more invidious.

Which is why it would be churlish – partisan, even – not to acknowledge the reslove of Richmond’s MP and Prime Minister in his calm determination to stick to his plan.

Unlike his predecessor, Mr Sunak is honest about the predicament; he openly states that getting the economy back on track will need the nation to put in hard yards, and accepted that some of the decisions he would have to make in order for us to stay the course.

Yet, even for those who do share that perspective, it is impossible for Mr Sunak and his Government to sidestep the fact that this has all played out on their watch, a watch peppered with scandal, controversy and abject contempt for those who are feeling the pinch the most.