Hunt: Reeves' black hole now £39bn to play with in Budget

JEREMY Hunt has accused Labour of lying about the state of the public finances and insisted it will have £39billion available for the Budget.

- Sam Lister

The Shadow Chancellor said anger among Labour backbenchers over cuts to the winter fuel allowance shows that even they do not believe Rachel Reeves' claims that she has a £22billion black hole to fill.

Speaking from the main stage at the Tory conference in Birmingham, he said the backlash over the decision means Labour will avoid welfare reform for fear of fuelling anger.

And he warned the Government will make a "catastrophic" mistake if it hikes up taxes in the budget.

Mr Hunt said: "One of the biggest lies we've had since Labour came to office is this nonsense about having the worst economic inheritance since the Second World War.

"You don't have to take my word for it, I mean just read this week's Economist, where there's an article saying that (Rachel Reeves) could have actually not got a black hole of £22billion, but a surplus of £39billion to play with in the Budget.

"The Financial Times did a Freedom of Information request to the Treasury to ask where this fictitious £22billion number came from.

"The reply they got back from the Treasury was 'we can't give you the workings because we're not sure they're accurate'.