Tory economic failure will force homeowners across Dumbarton constituency to have to fork out eye-watering rises on their mortgage payments, Jackie Baillie has said.

With interest rates rising for the 13th time recently, increasing the painful squeeze on family finances, both the Conservative Government in London and the SNP Government in Edinburgh are failing to support people facing the cost of living crisis.

Scottish Labour have revealed new figures showing that thousands of households across Jackie Baillie’s Dumbarton constituency will be paying an average of up to £190 more a month on their mortgages next year.

There are 7,400 homeowners in both West Dunbartonshire and Argyll and Bute who will have to pay an additional £130 and £190 per month respectively upon remortgaging next year.

Labour’s plans to protect mortgage holders – unlike the Conservative’s – would be made compulsory by instructing the regulator to require all lenders to bring in measures such as allowing borrowers to switch to interest only mortgage payments for a temporary period or to lengthen the term of their mortgage period.

By failing to make its own measures mandatory, the government are allowing households across Scotland to miss out on the mortgage support they need.

The Tory mortgage bombshell is already hitting households across Scotland hard and is only made worse by the SNP’s dogged refusal to use the powers they have and adopt Scottish Labour’s plans for a Mortgage Rescue Scheme to help people lower their payments and provide a safety net for those at risk of losing their homes.

Jackie Baillie said: “Across Scotland and across my constituency, families are being hit hard by the toxic combination of a Tory mortgage bombshell and an incompetent SNP distracted by scandal.

“These rises will push many people in Dumbarton, the Vale of Leven, Helensburgh and Lomond into hardship.

“Unlike both the Tory and SNP governments, myself and my Labour colleagues will not stand by while Scots face the reality of those failures.

“Labour’s mandatory plan, and our Mortgage Rescue Scheme to ease the Tory mortgage bombshell, offers Scottish families practical help now and, in government, we will commit to fiscal responsibility and growth to secure our economy for the future.”