Robert Peston

Could I just before, because I think this mortgage cost issue is really, could I just make one other just very quick important point about where we are economically?

And I have to say where I am is just a bit confused, right?

Because on the one hand,

We saw something that was positive, which was the IMF upgrading a little bit, the growth forecast for this year.

And yet we also saw unemployment figures, which were worse already than we were fearing.

So it is quite difficult to judge whether the economy is sort of weaker or

because of what we're seeing on unemployment, than we hoped it would be, or a bit stronger than we thought it would be.

And that, of course, feeds into what you want to talk about, which is what's going to happen to interest rates and mortgage costs.

Because right now, it is really quite difficult to see whether the biggest overwhelming...

impact of Trump's war is to damage our confidence, economy slowing down, in which case the Bank of England would be barking mad to put up interest rates from where they are now.

So my current view remains what it has been recently, which is interest rates are just going to stay where they are for quite some time rather than being increased or lowered because the picture is just so uncertain.

And it also means that people will not have the negotiating power to demand higher wages, right?

And we've seen a little bit of softening in wage settlements in the latest figure.

So, as I say, it's a very confusing and mixed picture.

Well, that was the point.

In February, before Trump bombed

Iran, the presumption was that interest rates were falling.

This is just another manifestation of how much damage Trump has done to us, right?

A war that we've stayed out of.

But don't fear anyone out there because it turns out that Andy Burnham is Brian.