SO WHAT'S IT TO BE...TAX RISES OR CUTS TO OUR SERVICES?

Reeves warns of worst public finances since WW2 and prepares UK for tough choices

- Martyn Brown

RACHEL Reeves raised the spectre of punishing tax rises this autumn as she warned of the worst public finances since the Second World War.

The new Chancellor has ordered Treasury chiefs to compile a dossier on the current state of play over the coming three weeks.

The swift move has triggered alarm bells that Labour is laying the groundwork for up to £15billion of tax rises in its first Budget.

Both Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt warned during the General Election campaign that "as sure as night follows day" Labour will put up taxes.

Such is its importance, one of the Daily Express's 10 pledges in our manifesto aimed at holding the new Government to account - is for lower taxes. But in a worrying sign of things to come that Ms Reeves used her first speech as Chancellor to pin the blame on the Tory Government for "tough decisions" that lay ahead.

She said: "I have repeatedly warned that whoever won the General Election would inherit the worst set of circumstances since the Second World War.

"What I have seen in the past 72 hours has only confirmed that our economy has been held back by decisions deferred and decisions ducked, political self-interest put ahead of the national interest.

"A gvernment that put party first and country second."

Ms Reeves said she instructed civil servants over the weekend to make an assessment of the public finances "so that I can understand the full scale of the challenge".