Rachel Reeves had hardly stepped down from the dispatch box to make her first big statement as chancellor of the exchequer before facing a furious backlash. She had claimed to have discovered a £22bn hole in public finances upon taking office and was using it to explain why the new Labour government will not be spending big to save failing public services. Later, she told Sky News that her predecessor Jeremy Hunt had “knowingly and deliberately lied” about the UK’s financial position.
Hunt took issue with the veracity of Reeves’s claims and accused her of discrediting politics by calling him a liar.
