The Conservative Party have launched a petition calling for the Prime Minister to fire Rachel Reeves after accusing her of ‘lying’ about the Budget.
The website, called ‘SackReeves.com’, asks voters to sign the campaign and ‘make Keir Starmer do the right thing’.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said on X: ‘Sack Reeves Now. We have learned that the Chancellor misrepresented the OBR’s forecasts.
‘She sold her Benefits Street Budget on a lie. Honesty matters. Tell Starmer what he must already know: she has to go.’
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Rachel Reeves has been accused of falsely exaggerating the hole in the country’s finances before the Budget this week.
Ministers and officials spent weeks in the run up to the speech, which increased taxes by more than £26 billion, sounding dire warnings about ‘hard choices’ needed over tax and spend decision.
However a letter published by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) on Friday said Reeves had ‘at no point’ faced a shortfall of more than £2.5bn.
It also revealed that the Chancellor was told as early as October that the government would actually be running a surplus.
Despite this good news, Reeves held a gloomy press conference on November 4 which suggested that the watchdog’s forecasts were worse than expected.
What does the Sack Reeves petition say?
The Conservative’s petition website states: ‘Rachel Reeves wanted her Budget for Benefits Street so badly, she lied about the OBR’s forecasts.
‘All so she could justify breaking her promise not to raise tax on working people. Labour’s lies are costing us more and more.
‘Sign the petition to make Keir Starmer do the right thing and sack Rachel Reeves.’
However the Chancellor has denied misleading the public and defended her Budget decisions as ‘fair and necessary choices’.
This morning Rachel Reeves said she ‘of course’ had not lied about the state of the public finances before the Budget.
The Chancellor told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme: ‘Of course I didn’t.’
Earlier, she had told the programme: ‘In the context of a downgrade in our productivity, which cost £16 billion, I needed to increase taxes, and I was honest and frank about that in the speech that I gave at beginning of November.’
How has the public reacted?
The petition has sparked a wide range of emotions on social media as voters weigh up their thoughts on the Budget.
Voter Carol Lord was confident Starmer would stand by his Chancellor, saying: ‘He won’t [sack her,] because historically if the Chancellor goes the prime minister follows!’
Others were more defensive of Reeves.
Daniel Edwards said: ‘The markets are up, we have more headroom now so maybe if you look at the bigger picture she’s pulled a blinder.’
In her Budget on Wednesday, the Chancellor announced £26 billion in new tax hikes, from new gambling and electric charges to a new ‘mansion tax’.
Her financial decisions were accidentally posted online by the independent watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, just under an hour before Reeves’ speech – revealing the entirety of her Budget.
Anti-poverty campaigners celebrated her decision to scrap the controversial two-child benefit cap, a police she said ‘pushes kids into poverty more than any other’.
The move will reduce child poverty by 450,000 by 2029/30, but will also cost about £3billion at the end of this Parliament.
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