The senior Conservative MP branded Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s claim of a £22 billion “black hole” in the public finances as “one of the biggest lies in British politics right now”.

The former home secretary’s comments come ahead of a major speech tomorrow by Sir Keir Starmer where he will warn that things in Britain will get worse before they get better.

Speaking on LBC, Mrs Braverman said: “There’s going to be a speech tomorrow by Keir Starmer where he’s going to be setting out his vision.

“But importantly he’s going to be declaring how gloomy the situation is, the inheritance as they call it, and that things are going to get worse before they get better.

“It’s very clear in terms of what the government is seeking to do which is to set out pretty gloomy pictures about the state of the country whether it’s on the economy, what we’ve seen over the last few weeks of riots on the streets of Britain, they’re going to have to release thousands of prisoners in the next few weeks.

“And I think personally they’re paving the way for draconian action on tax rises and that we’re going to be seeing a real increase in the tax burden when it comes to the reality of this Labour government.”

The Fareham and Waterlooville MP said it was “pretty predictable that a new Labour government is going to blame the previous Conservative government for many of the ills it is facing right now”.

She added: “It’s predictable and it’s standard, they’re going to be doing it for quite a few months if not years, I imagine but is it true?

“We heard Rachel Reeves talk about a £22 billion black hole in the public finances a few weeks ago. I think that’s one of the biggest lies in British politics right now.

“The Conservative government left this country with the fastest growing economy in the G7. We slashed the deficit from 2010 from 10 percent down to just over one percent, public sector net borrowing has fallen, unemployment has fallen, the deficit and the debt have all fallen, inflation slashed, thanks to good governance and prudent financial management by the Conservative government.

“So I don’t believe that lie peddled by Rachel Reeves that we’re facing this fiscal crisis. I do believe, however, what we’ve seen is huge, and I would say disproportionately large, payouts to the unions in terms of public sector wage increases.

“To junior doctors, for example, 23 percent wage increase given to the junior doctors costing billions of pounds.

“We’ve seen £7 billion going torwards a national wealth fund, £8 billion going to Great British Energy, no I don’t know what that’s supposed to do either. So gimmicks and vanity projects costing the taxpayer thousands of pounds.”

The Prime Minister’s speech on Tuesday, which will be his first major address since entering Number 10 in July, will blame the Conservatives for their inheritance.

Sir Keir will say: “We have inherited not just an economic black hole but a societal black hole. And that is why we have to take action and do things differently.

“Part of that is being honest with people – about the choices we face. And how tough this will be. Frankly – things will get worse before we get better.”