Reeves and Hunt row over public finances

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Chancellor Rachel Reeves and former chancellor Jeremy Hunt have traded blows in a row over the state of public finances.

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Reeves defended her decision to scrap winter fuel payments for around 10 million pensioners.

She said she had found a "black hole" in the public finances and "had to act" to "fix the mess".

But Mr Hunt denied that he had hidden a massive shortfall in the amount of money the government had at its disposal, saying the numbers had been available to Labour.

The new government and the Conservatives have been engaged in an increasingly bitter row over after Labour said it uncovered a £22bn hole in the public finances.

Ms Reeves said she had made "tough decisions" based on this position, which have included announcing that from this autumn, pensioners in England and Wales not on pension credit or other means-tested benefits will no longer get winter fuel payments worth between £100 and £300.

"They were not decisions I wanted to make, they were not decisions I expected to make, but when confronted with a £22bn black hole, I had to act," she said, adding that she had "to fix the mess left by the previous government".

She said she had to make the decisions because of the previous government's "undisclosed" overspending, and that Mr Hunt covered up the true state of the public finances when he was chancellor.

But Mr Hunt has disputed this, and has written to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case to complain about what he sees as conflicting claims made by officials about the "black hole" which risked "bringing the civil service into disrepute".