Keir Starmer has shrugged off criticism that the Autumn Budget was to blame for rising mortgage costs and assured borrowers that interest rates will come down.

Speaking to journalists on board the flight to the G20 summit in Rio, he admitted that last week’s growth figures were not “good enough”, according to The Sun.

But he insisted that the measures announced laid the groundwork for interest rates to fall.

He said: “What we have done with the Budget is to stabilise the economy and that, in my view, was the essential first step.

“As a result of that, the forecasts are for interest rates to go down, inflation to go down – you saw the figures around the Budget.”

“[Interest rates] are individual decisions for the banks, but the interest rates will be coming down.”

Average fixed rates continued to rise in the week to last Friday, weekly data from Moneyfacts showed.

A number of major lenders pulled their sub-4% deals, despite last week’s cut to the Bank of England base rate.