Sir Keir Starmer says his mortgage has gone up by 'a few hundred pounds' amid turmoil over mini-budget

Sir Keir Starmer has revealed his variable rate mortgage has gone up by "a few hundred pounds" as he slammed the government for its mini-budget.

The Labour leader accused the Tories of “losing control of the economy” after the pound tumbled against the dollar following the package of announcements by chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng last Friday.

The Bank of England has warned of significant increases to the base interest rate to help guard against increased inflation in the aftermath of the budget which included sweeping tax cuts for big earners, along with vast increases in government borrowing.

Speaking from his party’s conference in Liverpool on Wednesday, Starmer demanded the government recall parliament and "abandon this budget before any more damage is done" to millions of people.

Watch: Keir Starmer calls on government to abandon the budget before 'more damage is done'

Monthly mortgage rates will increase immediately for around two million people on tracker or variable plans due to higher interest rates on their payments if the BoE hikes the base rate.

Starmer told ITV News: “My mortgage has gone up because we’re on a variable rate. It’s gone up by a number of hundreds of pounds.

“But I’m not pleading a special case on my behalf, I’m thinking of the millions of people who are really up against it with their mortgage, their prices going up, with their pensions, with their energy bills.

“I was speaking to my sister last night who is a care worker. Because of her rising prices, she was really, really anxious about the situation. She’s not alone.”

He had earlier told LBC he was very concerned about the rising mortgage rates and the government had acted “outside the normal to-and-fro of politics”.

Read more: House prices could plunge by a third, experts warn

Mortgage borrowers have also been hit by a record overnight drop in the choice of home loan products as the economic fallout from mini-budget continues.

Moneyfacts.co.uk said 935 fewer residential mortgage products were on the market on Wednesday compared with Tuesday – the highest since its records began – amid uncertainty over interest rates.

Meanwhile, the BoE launched an emergency UK government bond-buying programme on Wednesday to prevent borrowing costs from spiralling out of control and stave off a “material risk to UK financial stability”.

The Bank’s extraordinary intervention, responding directly to the government’s tax-cutting strategy, will pile further pressure on prime minister Liz Truss and Kwarteng to defend a vision for the economy that has frightened markets and shocked economists.

It came on the day Labour's conference in Liverpool closed, with the party in a buoyant mood following a series of poll leads over the Tories.

Read more: Families 'risk losing their homes' after government's 'botched' mini-budget, Lib Dems warn

Neither Kwarteng or Truss have shown any willingness to step back from the policies, many of which made good on the promises she had delivered on her leadership campaign trail over the summer.

The scale of the crisis in the markets has led to unease in some quarters of the Tory party.