Rachel Reeves has been accused of lying about the dire state of Britain’s finances in a bid to sell £26billion of tax hikes in her Budget to the public and cabinet ministers to fund a boost in benefits.

Sir Keir Starmer on Monday repeatedly defended his Chancellor saying “there was no misleading”.

But Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Ms Reeves should quit after calling an "emergency press conference" to tell the public how terrible the public finances were when forecasts were more positive.

Ms Reeves is now facing increasing calls to resign over deceptive briefings ahead of her Budget last week that suggested she had a multi-billion-pound blackhole to fill.

What were the warnings?

In the lead-up to her Budget, the Chancellor’s warnings referenced a downgrade to productivity by

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