Camilla Tominey has laid into Rachel Reeves’s “ludicrous pitch-rolling” after the Chancellor was seen to have flip-flopped over tax hikes in the Budget.

Although no tax rises or spending cuts have been formally announced, rumours about the upcoming Budget have wreaked havoc on Ms Reeves’s popularity, who has now become the least popular Chancellor in history.

Around 71 per cent of respondents in the Ipsos poll said they were dissatisfied with her, while just 29 per cent of the population believe that the Leeds West and Pudsey MP is doing a good job balancing the books.

Last week, she caused further worry across Britain as well as within her own party as she seemed to indicate that income tax rises would be on the horizon.

Such a move would have instigated significant turmoil after Labour ran on a ticket ahead of the General Election not to raise key taxes, including income tax, VAT and National Insurance.

As a result, Ms Reeves reportedly binned off the plans in a last-minute U-turn amid fears of backbench backlash and vexed voters, which was loudly celebrated by Health Secretary and rumoured leadership rival Wes Streeting.

Now, Camilla has criticised the back-and-forth flip-flopping illustrated by the Labour frontbench, declaring the problem is “the Chancellor doesn’t know what she’s doing”.

Digging in deeper, Camilla pointed to Ms Reeves’s speech a fortnight ago when she appeared to be laying the ground to raise income tax, which many interpreted as pointing towards the tax.

“We get the pitch roll off, we’re going to cut income tax. She says it in a speech.

“Two weeks later, she says ‘we’re not going to do that. We don’t know what we’re doing. We might lower tax thresholds, which is a tax rise anyway’.

“She hasn’t got a clue what she’s doing!

“They’re literally writing the Budget right now, and they keep on chopping and changing it with all of this ludicrous pitch-rolling that’s taken place over the last six months.”

BUDGET 2025 LATEST:

• Petrol and diesel drivers urged to visit fuel station ahead of Rachel Reeves’ Budget decision
• Rachel Reeves plots NEW property tax raid for middle-class homeowners
• Investors lose confidence in Rachel Reeves as economists slam ‘chaotic’ Labour

In defence of Ms Reeves, Mr Tapp simply argued: “There are often rumours about rumours in politics.

“We do have a very difficult fiscal picture that we’ve inherited. We’re heading in the right direction.

“And if our growth in the first part of this year is higher than the Americans’, then it shows that we’re heading in the right direction. But there’s still a hell of a lot of work to do.”

Frustration with the Chancellor has been building since she was handed the keys to No11 back in July 2024.

Since then, Ms Reeves has survived a staggering amount of bad press and unhappiness within her own party as she seeks to plug the so-called black hole in the public purse.

Just a few weeks in office, she became embroiled in the freebie scandal as she accepted a number of free clothes and free concert tickets, just as Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner did.

Back in February this year, questions were raised over the accuracy of the Chancellor’s CV, revealing she lied about her tenure at the Bank of England.

And, last month, Ms Reeves wrote to the Prime Minister after she broke housing rules while renting out her Dulwich family home.

Now, having survived such a series of scandals so far, Whitehall insiders have whipped up a theory of a “panicked bunker mentality” between the Prime Minister and his Chancellor.

Our Standards:
The GB News Editorial Charter