The mood in the House of Commons morphed from rowdy to somewhat tense following the Budget, as Kemi Badenoch launched a series of scathing political and personal attacks on Rachel Reeves.
The Conservative leader slammed the Chancellor’s position as “untenable”, and her fiscal announcements as a “Budget for Benefits Street”.
Badenoch said: “I hope she enjoyed it, because it really should be her last.”
“If she has any decency, she will resign.”
The Leader of the Opposition said “her speech today was an exercise in self-delusion” and that Reeves is “a woman wallowing in self-pity, whining”.
“Let me explain to the Chancellor, woman to woman, people out there aren’t complaining because she’s female. They’re complaining because she’s utterly incompetent.
“I’ve identified a way to save taxpayers huge amounts of money by sacking just one person. The woman sitting opposite.”
She went on to describe Reeves as “spineless” and “shameless”, and refuted Rachel Reeves’ claims that inflation is coming down thanks to Labour tax measures: “Inflation is up, not down. And that inflation was stoked by her tax and spend decisions”.
Badenoch targets ‘mansplaining’ comments
The Conservatives had various targets for their political fire heading into the Budget. The OBR leaked almost every Budget measure more than half an hour before Reeves stood up to speak.
This leak prompted shadow Chancellor Mel Stride to call for a leak enquiry just ahead of the Budget announcement.
When the Chancellor did stand up to deliver her Budget, its measures included £26bn in tax rises – following a record £40bn of hikes last year.
Badenoch said: “She and this government has lost what little credibility they had left and no one will ever trust her again.”
She added: “She has the nerve to come to this house and claim this is all somebody else’s fault.”
At one stage, Badenoch turned to Reeves, who appeared to be speaking to the Prime Minister, and mockingly asked: “Is he mansplaining to you?”
The comment was a reference to a Times profile of Rachel Reeves over the weekend, in which the Chancellor said “I’m sick of people mansplaining how to be chancellor to me”.
According to Kemi Badenoch: “She is out of money. Out of ideas. Out of her depth. And she has run out of road.
“The country simply cannot afford a chancellor who can’t keep her own promises.
“Her position is untenable, and she knows it.”