John McCain, the Republican’s presidential nominee, on Thursday sought to push back against criticisms of his alleged do-nothing approach to the US housing crisis, unveiling a plan that would provide federal help to “well-meaning” homeowners facing foreclosure.

Mr McCain’s plan, which is much closer to the Bush administration’s stance than to those of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, marks a change of thinking from his last big speech on the crisis two weeks ago, where he said the taxpayer should not bail out people who had made bad decisions.