Former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has AGAIN refused to say sorry for the mortgage misery his disastrous mini-budget caused - instead saying he's "looking forward".
Mr Kwarteng, who was sacked by Liz Truss as she desperately tried to stay in Downing Street in October last year, sparked chaos by announcing a wave of tax cuts which spooked the markets.
As a result first-time buyers are now expected to have to save an extra £9,000 on average by 2030 for deposits after mortgage rates soared.
This evening Mr Kwarteng told Channel 4 News: "I'm not going to apologise.
"I've said very clearly, you know, what was done was done, but I don't believe that politicians are endlessly, you know, apologising for everything that has gone in the past. I'm looking forward.
"And I think we could have done things differently, absolutely."
Asked whether he felt people's anger about crippling mortgage rates, he said "no", adding that he was "very struck, actually, by the fact that people are 'you tried your best"'.
Pressed on whether the British public had forgiven or would forgive him, he said: "I don't see in terms of forgiveness."
When it was put to him that the mini-budget cost the British taxpayer tens of billions of pounds, he said: "All of that is something that happens.
"There were lots of issues relating to interest rates, relating to the exchange rate, relating to what the Fed were doing. Politicians can make mistakes, do make mistakes."
On May 3 Keir Starmer told MPs that nearly two million struggling homeowners will be hit by higher mortgage rates by the end of the year as a result of "Tory economic vandalism".
The Labour leader told the Commons at PMQs that 850,000 people are currently paying higher rates following last year's Tory chaos, which sent markets into turmoil and mortgage rates soaring.
This is set to rise by a further 930,000 by the end of the year, MPs were told.
The Labour leader said: "Nearly a million people are paying more on their mortgages each month, because his party used their money as a casino chip."
He added: "By the end of this year nearly two million home owners will be counting the cost of the Tory economic vandalism."
Mr Sunak replied: "I promised to put local people in control of new housing and I'm proud that that's what I've delivered within six weeks of becoming Prime Minister.
"Now he wants to impose top-down housing targets, he wants to concrete over the greenbelt and ride roughshod over local communities. Now previously he did say, he's on record as saying local people, local communities should have more power, more control. Now he's U-turned, just another in a long list of broken promises."
NOTE - this story was amended post-publication to clarify that the figure of £9,000 in relation to deposits refers to the extra amount a first-time buyer is expected to be required to save by 2030, rather than currently.
