Expectations management appears to be the name of the game for Rishi Sunak

‘I can’t solve every problem,’ said Mr Sunak as he urged people not to be scared by the rising cost of living

‘Where we can make a difference, of course we will,’ said the chancellor (BBC/AFP/Getty)

Expectations management appeared to be the name of the game for the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, as he made his way around the weekend political television shows. “I can’t solve every problem,” said Mr Sunak as he urged people not to be scared by the rising cost of living.

“Where we can make a difference of course we will,” he added, while acknowledging that things are “not going to be easy” and that whatever he announces in this week’s spring statement will not be enough to “fully protect” people from the financial pain of rises in the cost of petrol, heating and other essentials. Mr Sunak, as a number of other government ministers have done recently, admitted that sanctions imposed against are “not cost-free” and will have an impact.

Anybody that has watched events in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, labelled “a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come”, is unlikely to begrudge the sanctions regime that is being imposed.