Both US presidential candidates voiced support for the rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Sunday – coupled with demands for an overhaul of the lending agencies – as the credit crisis muscled its way on to the political centre stage.

John McCain, Republican candidate, said that the rescue “has to be done”. “We have got to keep people in their houses,” he told CBS. “There has got to be restructuring, there has got to be reorganisation, and there’s got to be some confidence that we have stopped the downward spiral.”