Reeves’s opening remarks

The chancellor’s opening remarks were somewhat overshadowed by the fact that the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) assessment of her budget’s impact were accidentally published early, in an unprecedented gaffe that the shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, called “outrageous”.

As she stood at the dispatch box, Reeves opens by saying it was “deeply disappointing” and a “serious error on their part”, meaning the OBR.

“We are rebuilding our economy,” she says, pointing to trade deals with the US, India and the EU, planning reforms, an overhaul of the visa system and a change of fiscal rules to raise public investment to a four-decade high. She once again refers to the £22bn “black hole” in the public finances left by the Conservatives, saying that taxes on the weal

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