Sir Keir Starmer has insisted "there was no misleading" voters over the state of the public finances in the run-up to the Budget and defended "necessary choices" his government made.
His chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has rejected allegations that she lied to voters by painting an overly negative picture to justify tax rises in the run-up to last week’s Budget, in which she announced £26 billion worth of hikes.
Reeves repeated claims of the "black hole" in the country’s finances, despite the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) saying it told her as early as September 17 that the shortfall was smaller than first expected.
The OBR later said to her in October that "black hole" had been eliminated altogether.
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