Reeves accused of 'lying' as OBR says she knew Budget books balanced

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

52% : In the event the Chancellor announced an eye-watering £30billion package of tax rises on Wednesday, a large chunk of which went on benefits rises that had been demanded by mutinous Labour MPs.
51% : However, a bombshell letter from the OBR to the Treasury committee has now laid bare that Ms Reeves has known since September that revisions to tax revenues had almost completely offset a £20billion productivity downgrade.
48% : She had already U-turned on the hints of income tax rises - if they were ever seriously considered - but only after the fact they were not happening was leaked to the Financial Times.
47% : 'That has consequences for working people - for their jobs and for their wages... and it has consequences for the public finances too, in lower tax receipts.'
46% : Ms Reeves even delivered a highly unusual 'scene setter' speech in Downing Street on November 4 hinting that she would have to breach Labour's manifesto promises not to increase income tax.
42% : And six days later she gave an interview to the BBC in which she insisted that the only way to balance the books without an income tax hike was to cut 'capital spending' - something she made clear she was not willing to do.
38% : Shameful.' Tory frontbencher Neil O'Brien said: 'She lied so that she could produce 'better than expected' numbers and say rates were not going up as a budget 'rabbit.' Kemi Badenoch said the Chancellor had 'lied' to justify massive tax hikes Downing Street denied that Ms Reeves had 'misled' the country, saying had been 'very clear' about the decisions.
37% : 'For months Reeves has lied to the public to justify record tax hikes to pay for more welfare.
23% : She flagged that the Office for Budget Responsibility was downgrading productivity, as well as blaming everything from Brexit to Tory austerity and Donald Trump for a 'worse than expected' outlook.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.