Sir Keir Starmer’s top aide has insisted that Chancellor Rachel Reeves did not mislead voters over the state of the public finances ahead of the Budget .

Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones insisted there was a “funding gap” to fill when asked when he knew that there was no “black hole” in the public finances.

It comes as Sir Keir is set to use a speech backing the Budget to signal a fresh push on welfare reform.

Ms Reeves has been forced to defend herself against claims she misled voters by talking up the scale of the fiscal challenge in the run-up to last week’s Budget, in which she announced £26 billion worth of tax rises.

She said an Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast showing a £4.2 billion surplus against her borrowing rules did not take into acco

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