‘It wasn’t true’: Rachel Reeves is forced to watch footage of herself vowing she ‘won’t be back for more’ after last tax bomb Budget

Rachel Reeves was filmed today promising ‘I won’t ask for any more’ as she struggled to justify her latest tax bomb Budget.

The Chancellor was forced to sit awkwardly on Sky News as his remarks following the latest record-breaking tax package were voiced.

In the video from a year ago, ‘£40bn increase’‘We have wiped out the past… now it’s up to us’.

‘We don’t need to go back for more,’ he said. ‘There is no need to come back with another Budget like this.’

Presenter Trevor Phillips, who toured broadcast studios this morning to defend the extraordinary new raid on Brits’ wallets, said: ‘That wasn’t true, was it?’

Alarmed, Ms Reeves responded by trying to blame the problems on the Treasury’s lowered productivity ratings from the OBR watchdog.

This was despite the independent body saying months ago it had told Ms Reeves that productivity declines had largely been eliminated thanks to better-than-expected tax revenues.

By the end of October the OBR was forecasting the government would run a small surplus, with Labour’s U-turns on the winter fuel allowance, welfare reforms and the two-child benefit cap being the only thing pushing the finances into the red.

The Chancellor was forced to sit awkwardly on Sky News as his remarks after the latest record-breaking tax package were repeated

Ms Reeves said: ‘This year’s budget was not on the scale of last year, but as I mentioned in my speech at the beginning of November, the context of this budget has changed and I have had to ask people to contribute more.

‘And the biggest thing that happened between the spring forecast and the forecast that the Office for Budget Responsibility provided for this budget was a huge drop in productivity.’

Phillips insisted that what Ms Reeves said was ‘not literally true’, suggesting she should have made it clear that ‘what you think you can do is not the case’.

Ms Reeves again argued that the reasons were ‘out of my control’.

The Chancellor also threw Keir Starmer into crisis today amid growing anger, saying the Prime Minister was fully aware of what he was doing.

He insisted the OBR’s downgrades were responsible for the decision to add another £30 billion in taxes; whereas the watchdog had privately informed him that there was in fact no structural black hole in fiscal matters.

And he denied that the extraordinary fear-mongering about the state of the government’s books amounted to lies.

Ms Reeves spent weeks before the financial package was announced explaining how the independent body had found a huge black hole in the records.

By the end of October the OBR (chaired by Richard Hughes, pictured) was forecasting that the government would run a small surplus.

A letter has been published from the OBR to the Treasury Select Committee, setting out the timeline for the forecasts presented to the Chancellor as he prepares his Budget package

But it emerged that the OBR had told itself as long ago as September that productivity declines were being offset by better tax revenues.

In fact, the end-October Budget forecasts showed it running a small surplus; Only Labor had its own political preferences for increasing benefits, which meant it had to implement a massive tax increase package.

Ms Reeves admitted she knew she was running a surplus when she made an extraordinary speech over breakfast about the poor state of the public finances.

But he denied ‘lying’ to the public about the situation, arguing that markets needed a bigger buffer to prevent them from panicking about government debt.

But in a heated interview with the opposition leader on the BBC, Kemi Badenoch warned him that he was deceiving voters on the budget.

The Chancellor looked away when he saw Ms Badenoch staring at him on the screen before their separate interview.

After the awkward moment, Ms Reeves complained that the Opposition chief had made her ‘uncomfortable’ with his vicious attacks in the House of Commons.

He reported that Ms Badenoch was being ‘personal’ with her jokes; this included mocking the Chancellor’s complaints about ‘mansplaining’.

Rachel Reeves carefully avoided meeting Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch’s gaze as they both prepared for an interview on the BBC this morning.

Ms Reeves complained she was ‘disturbed’ by Opposition chief’s brutal attacks on Budget in Commons

Ms Badenoch told presenter Laura Kuenssberg that her “role is not to provide emotional support to the Chancellor but to hold the Government to account”.

But Ms Badenoch told presenter Laura Kuenssberg that her ‘role is not to provide emotional support to the Chancellor but to hold the Government to account’.

He said Labor ministers ‘love to spoil it but they can’t stand it’ and repeated his demand for Ms Reeves to resign on the grounds that she is ‘lying’.

Asked about Ms Badenoch’s Commons attacks on the Budget, Ms Reeves said: ‘I don’t like that sort of thing. I don’t. I try to focus on policies rather than personalities.

‘I can only say that Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss’ budget is 100 per cent correct, so I’m not entirely sure whether his decision suits the British public.

‘But as a politician I have always tried to focus on issues, not personalities. This is not the kind of politics I do.

‘So yes, I was a little uncomfortable listening to this, because it’s not my way of doing things, but people are entitled to whatever Budget response they want and he focused on personalities.

‘I would rather listen to Kemi Badenoch put forward her alternative economic proposals. “We haven’t heard of that.”

But Ms Badenoch rejected the idea that she had gone too far.

‘I remember last year’s Budget – Rachel Reeves slapped me hard, I wasn’t even Leader of the Opposition at the time – now she’s forgotten,’ he said.

‘I remember Rachel Reeves calling Rishi Sunak a liar there. I remember they called Liz Truss lettuce.

Despite the on-screen fun, behind-the-scenes photos show the pair sharing a joke at one point

‘But now they exist and I’m just talking about his competence. They can’t handle this. They love to cook but they can’t afford it.

‘My job is to hold the Government to account, not to provide emotional support to the Chancellor, and people there wanted someone to tell him he was doing a bad job and I had to make sure I got that message across.’

Ms Badenoch added: ‘I don’t care if people get into mischief in the letterbox. What I care about is whether I’m doing a good job.

‘He should care about whether he’s doing a good job; He’s doing a terrible job.’

He said: ‘The Chancellor held an emergency press conference telling everyone how bad the financial situation was and now we have seen the OBR tell him the exact opposite.

‘He was increasing taxes to ensure social welfare.

‘The only thing that wasn’t funded was the welfare payments he made, and he does this on the backs of a lot of people out there working hard and getting poorer.

‘And that’s why I believe he should resign.’

Ms Badenoch added: ‘Shadow chancellor Mel Stride has written to the FCA.

‘I hope there’s an investigation, because it seems like what he’s doing is trying to increase his budget – telling everyone how awful it’s going to be and saying they won’t be so upset when he finally announces it – and still sneaking in tax increases for welfare.

‘We shouldn’t be running this process this way. ‘We need people to have confidence in our system and what the Chancellor will announce.’

Despite the on-screen fun, behind-the-scenes photos show the duo sharing a joke at one point.