CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves claimed today that she had taken key Budget decisions as “a team” with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

She also conceded that the annual statement of key economic and financial policies had been bedevilled by too many leaks.

Speaking to the key Commons Treasury committee, she said: “The Budget had too much speculation. There were too many leaks. And much of that leaks and speculation was inaccurate.”

The leaking culminated in the entire Budget being posted online by the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) before she had unveiled the package to MPs, a blunder that cost OBR chief Richard Hughes his job.

Mrs Reeves said that a replacement for Mr Hughes would be named in the new year.

Seeking to explain her flip-flopping on income tax before the Budget — it was to go up, in breach of Labour’s manifesto pledges, then it wasn’t — she shared the blame with Sir Keir.

She told the committee that she was meeting the premier two or three times a week at that point. They decided the tax policy “as a team.”

Mrs Reeves admitted that they had looked at raising tax rates but they had been able to avoid that by introducing other measures.

These included a continuing freeze on tax thresholds, which means that millions of working people will end up paying more tax.