The United Kingdom’s new chancellor of the exchequer is accusing the previous government of covering up the dire state of the nation’s finances as she prepares to deliver a speech to Parliament that is widely expected to lay the groundwork for spending cuts and higher taxes.
In extracts of her speech released late on Sunday, Rachel Reeves professed shock at the scale of the problems she discovered following a department-by-department review of public spending commissioned shortly after she took office three weeks ago.
