In what was at times a heated affair, the chancellor appeared before MPs on the Treasury Committee to answer questions about the Budget, and how her department made an unprecedented number of leaks.

Dame Harriett Baldwin MP questioned the chancellor’s pre-election pledges of no tax rises, asking Reeves: ‘You’ve put together two of the biggest tax raising Budgets in UK history, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has said there is not a single measure that has a positive growth impact - can you tell us what your growth plan is?’

The chancellor said: ‘We’ve been through this, there was new information after the general election, first of all the £22bn black hole left by the previous government’.

Bald