Rachel Reeves has been accused of misleading voters by claiming there was a huge hole in the government’s finances which did not actually exist.

Treasury officials briefed that the chancellor needed to raise around £20 billion in the Budget to balance the nation’s books.

Reeves herself even held a highly-unusual pre-Budget press conference in Downing Street on November 9 in which she refused to rule out putting up income tax – a move which would have broken a key Labour manifesto pledge.

Later that week, she told Radio 5Live that deep cuts in public spending would be needed if she did not increase income tax rates.

But days later the Financial Times revealed that Reeves had decided not to put up income tax rise after all.

Treasury sources said that was because the Office for Budget R

See Full Page