Reeves 'honest with the public' minister insists after Starmer backs under-fire Chancellor

The minister told MPs: "The Chancellor has been consistent and up front with the public about her considerations in the lead-up to the budget last week."

MPs were heard laughing at his statement.

Rachel Reeves is accused of 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 account the welfare reform U-turn or the abolition of the two-child benefit cap.

Members of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's top team have reportedly accused him and Ms Reeves of misleading the Cabinet, with The Times quoting an unnamed minister as describing the handling of the Budget as "a disaster from start to finish".

Mr Murray said that the chancellor was "clear on her priorities at the budget", which "delivered on those priorities".

He assured the chancellor said in her Downing Street speech that the productivity review would lead to £16bn less in tax receipts. He said she was always clear that she wanted to increase fiscal headroom, and she did so.

He said ministers were always clear that welfare policy would have to be paid for in the budget.

Taking the forecasts and the policy decisions into account, he said the Chancellor did have a deficit of £2.7bn.

"The combined effect of this information is that on 4 November, the Chancellor knew that the government would be in a deficit against the stability rule before any of this government's priorities at the budget had been delivered, or any additional headroom built," he told the Commons.

"In light of this information, and in light of the OBR's productivity downgrade, the chancellor knew that challenging decisions would be required on tax and spend."

He added: "The Chancellor has been honest and consistent with the public in everything she has said."

Speaking today, the PM threw his support behind his Chancellor, hailing the autumn Budget as something his Government should be "proud" of - pointing to a cut in energy bills and the removal of the two-child benefit cap.

When pressed on whether Ms Reeves lied to Cabinet Ministers and the public over the state of the public finances, Sir Keir said: "There was no misleading."

“There was no misleading, and I simply don’t accept, and I was receiving the numbers, that being told that the OBR productivity review means you’ve got £16 billion less than you would otherwise have had shows that you’ve got an easy starting point.

“Yes, of course, all the other figures have to be taken into account. But we started the process with significantly less than we would otherwise have had."

He said there was “no pretending” that it was a “good starting point”.

Mr Murray told MPs he was “very concerned” to learn that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) error may have seen the early release of previous forecasts.

Quoting from the watchdog's investigation, Mr Murray told the Commons: "'It is very likely that the weaknesses that caused the premature access of the November 2025 Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO) were pre-existing.

"'Indeed, it appears that the March 2025 EFO was accessed prematurely.'"

Turning to the leak's impact on the markets, Treasury minister Mr Murray later added: "That market sensitive information have been prematurely accessible to a small group of market participants is extremely concerning.

"That it might have been the case on more than one occasion is even more severe. We do not know at this stage the extent to which market behaviour may have been affected on this or other occasions as a result of information being available early.

"But I do want to share one further bit of information from the report with the House today - on the morning of the Budget, the first IP address to successfully access the EFO had made 32 prior attempts that day, starting at around 5am.

"Such a volume of requests implies that the person attempting to access the document had every confidence that persistence would lead to success at some point, and this unfortunately leads us to consider whether the reason they tried so persistently to access the EFO is because they have been successful at a previous fiscal event."

A review into the leak last Wednesday, that embarrassed the Chancellor, found that it was due to ‘configuration errors’ within their website that mean the document could be viewed by those who knew the correct website URL.

The leak of last week’s Budget was not due to ‘hostile cyber activity, or any malfeasance from within,’ the OBR announced earlier today.

The report states: “The cause, which appears to have been pre-existing, was, in essence, configuration errors which reflected systemic issues. 

"These led to a failure to ensure the protections which hide documents from public view immediately before publication were in place."

"The ultimate responsibility for the circumstances in which this vulnerability occurred and was then exposed rests, over the years, with the leadership of the OBR,” the report adds.