Moment Reeves refuses to meet Kemi Badenoch’s eye in TV showdown after Tory leader branded her a liar and ridiculed her ‘sexism’ complaints

Rachel Reeves publicly refused to meet Kemi Badenoch today after she said the Tory leader lied about the Budget.

The Chancellor looked away as Ms Badenoch stared at him on the screen before their separate interviews on the BBC this morning.

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’.

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’.

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”.

Conservative Party accuses Ms Reeves of ‘lying’ to mollify country over tax rises

The barbed comments came after the Conservative Party leader said Ms Reeves was ‘lying’ about the finances in a bid to mollify the public against the budget’s massive tax rises.

Mrs Reeves sent Keir Starmer into crisis today Anger is mounting, saying the Prime Minister is fully aware of what he is 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.

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 told Sky News: He said it had had an impact, citing the ‘major drop in productivity’ as the main factor in their decision. ‘huge impact’ and ‘so I had to ask people to contribute more’.

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.

Ms Reeves caused shock when presenter Trevor Phillips initially sidestepped a question about whether she was ‘lying’ to the public.

But when pressed again he said: ‘Of course I didn’t.’

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

Today, as the chaos regarding the Budget continues:

• Asked whether the Prime Minister knew the OBR’s financial forecasts ahead of the Budget preparations, he said: ‘Yes, of course. ‘We are a partnership.’
• Ms Reeves again tried to argue that the Labor manifesto had not been breached because tax ‘rates’ had not changed, despite accepting that ‘working people’ would pay more. ‘We did not break the manifesto’ He said: ‘We did not break the manifesto.’
• Ms Reeves acknowledged that her claim about the lack of headroom was partly due to the OBR’s overestimates ‘not including the policy choices we made between the Spring and Autumn’.
• The OBR stopped short of assuring its chief was safe after the Treasury issued a thinly veiled rebuke to the watchdog for revealing when it had told the government.
• Downing Street launches frantic operation to support Chancellor as Sir Keir holds a press conference tomorrow.

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 would say Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss’ budget is 100% 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.

‘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.

The barbed comments came after the Conservative Party leader said Ms Reeves was ‘lying’ about the finances in a bid to mollify the public against the budget’s massive tax rises.

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

‘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.