Chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing growing criticism over her comments ahead of the Budget, after it emerged the watchdog told her privately there was no structural black hole
Wriggling Rachel Reeves has been forced to insist she didn’t lie to the public before her Budget. The Chancellor insisted she had not deliberately misled anyone amid rising fury of how she softened up the public for monster tax hikes.
She said “of course I didn’t” lie, despite spending weeks talking up how the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had found a huge black hole in the books. But the watchdog had in fact been informing her privately that there was no structural black hole.
Ms Reeves insisted she did not think there should be an investigation into her pre-Budget comments as it wasn’t “necessary”. She said: “Anyone who thinks that there was no repair job to be done on the public finances, I just don’t accept that.
“We needed to build more resilience, more headroom into our economy. That’s what I did, along with that investment in the NHS and cutting bills for families.”
Tory shadow chancellor Mel Stride argued she crossed the line into being misleading and has written to the Financial Conduct Authority calling for a full investigation.
Ms Reeves also defended her decision to abolish the two-child benefit cap, saying the Government was “choosing children”.
But Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor was “raising taxes to pay for welfare” in the Budget and “should resign”. She said: “The Chancellor called an emergency press conference telling everyone about how terrible the state of the finances were and now we have seen that the OBR had told her the complete opposite.
“She was raising taxes to pay for welfare. The only thing that was unfunded was the welfare payments which she has made and she’s doing it on the backs of a lot of people out there who are working very hard and getting poorer.
“And because of that, I believe she should resign.”
She also defended her response to the Budget. Asked whether she went too far in her criticisms of Ms Reeves, she said: “I remember when Rachel Reeves was out there calling Rishi Sunak a liar.
“I remember when they were all calling Liz Truss a lettuce. But now it’s them and I’m merely talking about her competence.
“They can’t take it. They like to dish it, but they can’t take it.”
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