MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENTARY: Labour Party shows once again that it cannot be trusted with other people’s money

In normal times the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s job would be to plug any holes in the government’s finances.

But our new head of the Treasury, Rachel Reeves, clearly thinks it’s her job to create such black holes, or even invent them when they don’t exist.

The current information being released by our Ministry of Finance is quite astonishing.

The public and Parliament are expected to believe that Ms Reeves, her team and the Prime Minister had no idea of ​​the true state of the national finances until they were invited to their new offices in Whitehall shortly after the election.

We are to believe that they were astonished with horror when the truth was presented to them.

And as a result, all their promises of moderation and restraint are null and void.

It may once have been true that the opposition could be kept in the dark on such matters and thus be able to honestly say that they were surprised when they opened the books.

Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer Reginald Maudling famously told a new Labour candidate in 1964: “I’m sorry I left such a mess” (which he did).

Equally famous is the letter left on his desk at the Treasury by Labour politician Liam Byrne in 2010 in which he rather thoughtlessly wrote to his Conservative successor: “I’m afraid there’s no money.”

And rightly so – he was never allowed to forget it.

Later, however, the Conservatives established the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which has been constantly monitoring the state of public finances since 2010.

Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has said Rachel Reeves’ claims that she discovered the economy was in worse shape than expected were “nothing but hoaxes”.

He concludes: “The truth is she is unwilling to make the tough decisions on wages, productivity or welfare reform that would enable us to live within our means, and is setting the stage for tax increases.”

It also sets the stage for disappointing spending cuts that will affect the long-discussed £1.7 billion Stonehenge road tunnel project and major Tory plans to build 40 hospitals.

But she appears willing to accept a whopping 5.5 per cent public sector pay rise – well above inflation.

Starmer’s government has committed to leaving VAT, income tax and national insurance rates unchanged for now, although it will be interesting to see how long it takes before further “unexpected” events lead to a rethink.

The new cabinet will have a hard time abandoning any major investment projects, since it has just announced massive construction investments that are supposedly intended to boost the economy (which is, in fact, doing quite well).

Ms Reeves is now reluctant to say she has “no plans” to increase or change wealth, estate and inheritance taxes – a marked change since the election campaign.

Who knows what he will do and how long this supposedly urgent policy change was actually planned?

The Blair-Brown government of 1997, whose methods were in many respects adopted by Sir Keir Starmer, carefully kept secret a major raid on private pension funds that ruined the sector.

This government is not only greedy and dishonest, but also inept.

The Labour Party has shown once again that it cannot be trusted with other people’s money.

As they choose a new leader and a new direction, conservatives must remember that the country will not be satisfied with just a fierce and uncompromising opposition.

We may need a new government much sooner than many thought on the morning of July 5.