Voters must get to have their say in a general election if Rishi Sunak wants to bring back austerity, Angela Rayner has said.
Labour ’s deputy leader warned the public “has lost confidence” in the government as it moves onto its third PM in three months.
Appearing on the This Morning sofa, she said: “It's like a merry-go-round. Now it's time to put it back to the country [to] decide.”
Mr Sunak and his Chancellor Jeremy Hunt are threatening to impose swingeing cuts on public services such as the police, hospitals and schools.
More than 5.7million people on Universal Credit are also waiting to hear if the government will snatch hundreds of pounds from their benefits next April.
Ms Rayner argued that “ordinary working people who are really struggling at the moment” should not be forced to pay the price for Tory mistakes.
“The last PM wrecked our economy, there’s talk about austerity again and cutting public services,” she said.
“These are big decisions about how we deal with the economic crisis we now face because of that mini-Budget, so we think it should be put to the public because that's democracy and they should have a say in it.”
Ministers this morning have suggested the Halloween Budget when tax and spending decisions are due to be set out next Monday could be delayed.
Ms Rayner went on: “That's just going to make people nervous. Rishi Sunak hasn't said how he's going to balance the books.
“We know there's a black hole now because of Liz Truss ’s mini-Budget. What we want to see is voters having a real say on what are the challenges and being able to scrutinise political parties about how they're going to solve it.
“Because this isn't just about the next couple of weeks. This is about how we're going into the long term of how we grow our economy. And who pays for the mess that we're now in because of that mini-Budget.”
Ms Rayner accused Mr Sunak of “running scared” of voters by ruling out a snap election.
During Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday - the first clash between Mr Sunak and and Keir Starmer - the Labour leader also demanded an eleciton.
He told the new PM: "The only time he ran in a competitve election he got trounced by the former Prime Minister who herself got beaten by a lettuce.
"Why doesn't he put it to the test - let working people have their say - and call a general election."
The Mirror's petition on the 38 Degrees campaign website calling for a ballot has more than 140,000 signatures.
