Rachel Reeves struck a defiant tone at a panel event on Friday.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said the government was reliant on bond traders as part of an effort to fix “precarious” public finances in a pointed dig at Labour’s Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.

In a panel discussion in front of an audience of centre-left figures on Friday, Reeves struck a defiant tone against mooted criticism she had been “in hock to the bond markets”, a comment made by Labour’s Burnham in an interview with the New Statesman .

She defended the importance of “securonomics” and keeping public finances on stable ground, hitting back at left-wing critics who suggested the government should borrow more.

“When we campaigned just over a year ago, I said and we said as a party that we would stabilise the economy

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