He said: “Those public finances were audited by the OBR just 10 weeks before the election was called. We are now expected to believe that in that short period a £20bn black hole has magically emerged.
“She wants to blame the last Conservative government for tax rises and project cancellations she has been planning all along.”
To ensure the OBR does not encounter similar issues in the future, Ms Reeves vowed to share more information with the watchdog.
She said: “We will require the Treasury to share with the OBR its assessment of immediate public spending pressures, and enshrine that rule in the Charter for Budget Responsibility so no government can never ever again cover up the true state of the public finances.”
Ms Reeves also hit back at suggestions that the Treasury’s top civil servant played a part in the failures because of his role in signing off government spending projections.
Asked if she had “confidence” in permanent secretary James Bowler, Ms Reeves replied: “In the end, civil servants advise and ministers decide. And ministers made decisions to sign off spending without any idea of how it was going to be paid for.
“When I arrived at the Treasury on July 5, I asked civil servants to provide me with an honest assessment of the state of our public finances and public spending pressures.
“They have done that with great professionalism and I believe that they provided similar information to the previous chancellor. He chose to ignore it. I will not ignore the pressures on our public spending and our public services.
She also accused Mr Hunt of “trying to pass the blame” on to civil servants.
She said: “I won’t have it. I have huge respect for the civil servants in this institution that worked incredibly hard the last few weeks to provide the accurate information I presented to Parliament today.”
