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Reeves was also asked about her decision to scrap the two child benefit cap from next April, which is estimated to cost £3bn a year by 2029-30.
The move, which came amid intense pressure from Labour backbenchers, was welcomed by campaigners and charities who argue it is the most cost-effective way to cut child poverty.
The two-child limit prevents parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for more than two children.
Asked whether the decision to remove the cap was in response to pressure from Labour MPs, Rachel Reeves told Trevor Phillips:
We’re choosing children. This lifts more than half a million children out of poverty, combined with our changes on free breakfast clubs, extending free school meals, 30 hours free childcare for working parents and preschool-age children …
The people I was thinking about were kids who I know in my constituency go to school hungry and go to bed in cold and damp homes, and from April next year those parents will have a bit more support to help their kids.
Reeves appears to back OBR chief despite watchdog's shock leak
Rachel Reeves’s much-anticipated budget was undermined after the Office for Budget Responsibility’s economic forecast appeared online about 40 minutes before she announced her policies to the Commons.
The chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, Richard Hughes, has said he will continue to lead the watchdog unless he loses the confidence of the chancellor, the Treasury committee or parliament.
The OBR’s investigation into the leak is expected to report to the chancellor on Monday.
Asked if Hughes’ position is safe, Reeves said she will study the contents of the report tomorrow, but that she has a “huge amount of respect” for him and the budget watchdog.
She told Sky News:
We will get a report tomorrow, the report that looks at what happened about that budget leak. It was clearly serious. It was clearly a serious breach of the protocol, but I’ll see that report tomorrow.
'Of course I didn't' lie about budget forecasts, Reeves said
Rachel Reeves said she “of course” had not lied about the state of the public finances before the budget. “Of course I didn’t,” she told Trevor Phillips.
Earlier, the chancellor had told his programme:
In the context of a downgrade in our productivity, which cost £16bn, I needed to increase taxes, and I was honest and frank about that in the speech that I gave at beginning of November.
Keir Starmer said on Thursday that Reeves’s £26bn tax-raising budget had “kept to our manifesto”, but conceded that Labour had “asked everybody to contribute” in the years ahead.
Rachel Reeves is speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sky News. He started by replaying a clip of the chancellor saying last year that Labour would not increase taxes further in a future budget. He says her statements turned out not to be true.
Reeves defended this year’s budget by saying it “was not on the scale of the one last year”, adding that she had to ask people to “contribute more” because the “context” had changed.
Reeves said the OBR decided to do a review of productivity and said the watchdog’s productivity downgrade did not reflect anything the Labour government had done.
Chancellor to defend budget amid deepening row over deficit claims
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has become engulfed in a politically damaging row about what she told the public about the state of the British economy ahead of last week’s budget.
Reeves had claimed that a downgrade to the UK’s predicted economic productivity would make it more difficult to meet her self-imposed fiscal rules.
She used a speech on 4 November to suggest tax rises were needed because poor productivity growth would have “consequences for the public finances”. It was seen by many as an attempt to clear the way for breaching Labour’s manifesto pledge on income tax by raising rates.
But the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) – the budget watchdog – on Friday said it had informed the chancellor as early as 17 September that an improved tax take from growing wages and inflation meant the shortfall was likely smaller than initially expected, and told her in October it had been eliminated altogether.
The OBR’s disclosure has prompted opposition figures to urge the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to investigate whether the Treasury deceived the public. The Conservatives have accused Reeves of “market abuse”, which is a civil offence. No 10 has denied Reeves misled the public over the state of the country’s finances ahead of the budget.
The prime minister, Keir Starmer, is expected to give his backing to the budget in a speech tomorrow, saying it will help ease cost of living pressures and lower inflation, and will reportedly announce plans to go “further and faster” to encourage growth.
Reeves will be questioned about the row this morning on the broadcast rounds so stick with us for the latest developments.
