Trevor Phillips Questions Rachel Reeves Over Budget Tax Row

Treasury officials repeatedly suggested in the run-up to the Budget that there was a black hole of up to £30bn in the government’s sums.

Reeves herself even called an emergency Downing Street press conference at which she painted a gloomy picture of the state of the economy and warned voters their taxes would need to go up.

But figures released by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) financial watchdog on Friday showed that gap did not exist and that the chancellor actually had a surplus of £4.2bn.

On Sky News, Phillips quoted Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who said: “For months, Reeves has lied to the public to justify record tax hikes to pay for more welfare’. Did you lie?”

The chancellor initially avoided giving a straight answer, saying she wanted to “reduce child poverty”.

Phillips told her: “I just asked you did you lie, and I have to say the answer I was looking for was ‘no’. I didn’t hear the word no. I just asked you ‘did you lie’?”

Reeves replied: “Of course I didn’t.

Watch the whole excange below: