huffingtonpost - 13 days ago

Rachel Reeves has come in for a wave of criticism since the Budget.Labour are now even less trusted to run the economy than Liz Truss was in the wake of her disastrous mini-Budget, a new poll has revealed.The YouGov research for Sky News found that just 10% of voters now back the party with the nation’s finances after last week’s Budget plunged the government into a fresh crisis.That compares to the 15% who still backed the Conservatives under Truss after she crashed the economy by promising £45 billion of unfunded tax cuts.Chancellor Rachel Reeves is under huge pressure amid claims she lied to the country about the state of the country’s finances to justify putting up taxes by £26 billion.The YouGov poll showed 37% of voters believe Reeves made things out to be worse than they really are, compared to 18% who do not.A separate survey by the same pollster found that 60% of the public believe the chancellor is not trustworthy, compared to just 19% who think she is.Reeves held a highly-unusual Downing Street press conference two weeks before the Budget in which she painted a gloomy economic picture, suggesting she needed to raise more cash to fill a black hole of up to £30 billion.But it emerged on Friday that just days before, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had told her the government actually had a £4.2bn surplus in its finances.Reeves was forced on Sunday to deny she had lied to the public, insisting she had always been clear about the need to put up taxes to boost public spending and give herself more “fiscal headroom”, or spare cash, in case of emergencies.Speaking at an event on Monday morning, prime minister Keir Starmer insisted “there was no misleading” of either the cabinet or the country by either him or Reeves.He said the OBR had told the Treasury that tax receipts would be £16bn lower than previously thought, so it had been necessary to put up taxes to make up that shortfall.Related...Exclusive: Cabinet At War Over Claims Rachel Reeves Misled Them Before The BudgetWhy The Row Over Whether Rachel Reeves Misled The Country MattersBBC Political Editor Says Rachel Reeves Misled The Public In Run-Up To Budget

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