Badenoch blasts Reeves' 'laundry list of excuses, blaming everyone else for her own failures' as she gets ready to raise taxes

KEMI Badenoch said Britain will have “watched in horror” as Rachel Reeves sought to blame everyone else for her upcoming tax raid.

- BY MARTYN BROWN AND CHRISTIAN CALGIE

She said time is rapidly running out for the beleaguered Chancellor as she desperately grapples to fill a colossal £30 billion blackhole in the nation's finances.

Writing exclusively in the Daily Express, the Conservative leader accuses Ms Reeves of being “weak” and lacking the “courage” to rebuild the country’s crumbling economy.

Her withering onslaught came after the Chancellor teed up a manifesto-busting tax raid, ominously warning “we will all have to contribute” to getting the country back on track.

In an unprecedented speech in Downing Street ahead of her Budget in 21 days, Ms Reeves said she was now prepared to put the national interest ahead of political expediency.

She is understood to be considering increasing income tax by 1p or 2p to help balance the books.

This is despite a pledge in Labour's manifesto not to increase income tax, national insurance or VAT.

It is more than half a century since a Chancellor chose to put up the basic rate of income tax - that was Labour's Denis Healey, who delivered his Budget on April 15, 1975.

And it also comes after her first Budget, 12 months ago, in which she launched a £40billion tax raid to fund a public spending spree and vowed not to “come back for more”.