Rachel Reeves has blown a £60billion hole in Britain’s finances by borrowing far more than the country’s own spending watchdog predicted. The eye-watering overspend was driven by a rising welfare bill, which critics say has ballooned out of control.

Labour ministers stand accused of being too timid to face down their own Left-wing MPs, who have demanded ever more benefits spending. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has admitted it underestimated how much the Government would borrow. Soaring inflation and rising interest rates had sent debt interest and welfare costs climbing beyond the OBR’s forecasts.

The true scale of the damage is laid bare in the latest official figures, which show the Government borrowed £24.3billion in April alone. That is £3.4billion more than the OBR predicted just weeks earlier at the spring statement.

Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride savaged the “weak and chaotic Labour Government”, accusing it of “out-of-control” borrowing.

He said: “Rachel Reeves has maxed out the nation’s credit card, leaving debt soaring and borrowing costs the highest in the G7.”

Sir Mel added that Labour had “totally failed to get a grip of the ballooning welfare bill and face down their Left-wing backbenchers. Instead, they have ramped up borrowing and taxes to pay for more benefits”.

His frustration follows comments revealed in the Mandelson Files by a senior Cabinet minister.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden complained that Labour MPs kept asking him “who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?”

Robert Colvile, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, told the Daily Express that governments had “always ended up spending more than it thought it would” since the 1990s.

He said Labour’s approach could be summed up as “spend now, tax now, and hope for growth later”.

Ms Reeves’s tax hikes had not stopped borrowing from increasing, he warned – instead, they had “ended up having a chilling effect on growth”.

Darwin Friend, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said that Britons would be “deeply alarmed by this £60billion borrowing black hole”.

He urged ministers to “rein in spending”, blasting the Government for “living beyond its means and pushing the cost onto future generations”.

Andrew Griffith, the Shadow Business Secretary, told the Daily Express the borrowing amounted to “an extra £900 for every Brit”.

He added the cash “doesn’t just disappear – it gets paid back through tax rises, service cuts, or higher interest costs that crowd out everything else”.

He said: “The OBR has admitted Labour’s numbers never added up. Now, it’s hard-working families who will live with the consequences.”

Valentin Boboc, senior economist at the Institute of Economic Affairs, cautioned: “The only sustainable route to fix our public finances is a combination of economic growth and spending restraint. Trying to plug the gap with tax rises only digs the hole deeper.”

Borrowing across the full financial year to March 2026 stood at £129billion – £3.7billion less than the OBR forecast.

A Treasury spokesman said: “We have the right economic plan. Despite a war we did not start, our actions reduced government borrowing by over £20 billion last year.

“The economy is in a stronger position to deal with shocks as a result of the Chancellor’s decisions.”