'Nothing to do with her gender!' Rachel Reeves accused of hiding behind misogyny claims ahead of 'disastrous' Budget

The comments come after Mrs Reeves has reportedly vowed she will still be Chancellor in two years’ time, dismissing critics and what she described as "misogyny" in public life.

She urged Labour MPs to rally behind her tax-hiking Budget, insisting internal unity is essential if the party wants to convince voters it deserves a second term.

Mrs Reeves stressed she would not let opponents "beat me" and warned that recent pre-budget leaks have been "incredibly destabilising" for the Government.

Speaking to Labour MPs in the Commons, she said: "I’ll show the media, I’ll show the Tories. I will not let them beat me. I’ll be there on Wednesday, I’ll be there next year and I’ll be back the year after that."

She added: “I don’t think even I had recognised the misogyny that still exists in public life.”

Speaking about this on The People's Channel, Mr Myers said: "I mean, if she's already accusing her critics of misogyny, at the risk of mansplaining to her, the reason she is unpopular, the reason there is so much trepidation about this Budget, is because of her performance so far.

"She's broken so many of her promises. Last year, she said that would be the last tax-raising Budget, that it would set the agenda for the Parliament to come and now she's back with more, a smorgasbord of taxes, although we don't yet know the exact details.

"It's also because of her performance more generally. She promised that this Government would have a laser-like focus on growth.

"Growth was 0.1 per cent in the last quarter. The Office for Budget Responsibility whose predictions are usually wrong, has downgraded its forecasts for growth for the next five years.

"So clearly, if people are angry at Rachel Reeves, and polling suggests she's the most unpopular Chancellor since the 1970s, there are very good reasons for that, and none of them has anything to do with her sex."

"We've had three female prime ministers; we're on our fourth or fifth female home secretary; our third female foreign secretary.

"Yes, it's unusual that it's taken this long to have a female Chancellor, but people in Britain are perfectly comfortable with women in high-ranking positions, and we don't judge them as women.

"If you look at some of her predecessors, they were put through the wringer. Poor old Kwasi Kwarteng lasted, what, 38 days? He was constantly mocked.

"George Osborne, quite deservedly, would be booed in public when he appeared. So she's not unique in facing scrutiny and harsh criticism, and I don't think being a woman has anything to do with that.

"She also dishes out just as much. There was a recent encounter with a local businessman in Scotland who, quite justifiably, complained that taxes on North Sea drilling were damaging the Scottish economy, and she snapped at him: 'Speak to me with respect, I'm the Chancellor of the Exchequer.'

"If you dish it out, you should be able to take it. She can be just as condescending as she claims her critics are."

The Budget is expected to unveil a wide array of tax hikes aimed at filling a £30billion shortfall and satisfying Labour backbench calls for increased welfare funding.

Among the proposals being lined up are continued freezes to income tax thresholds, revisions to pension contribution rules, a levy on expensive properties and a per-mile charge for electric car drivers.

None of these measures would come into force until 2028.

Ministers are also poised to extend the sugar tax to include pre-packaged milkshakes, potentially generating up to £100million from 2027.

Mrs Reeves is further understood to be considering scaling back planned public spending growth in 2029-30 by as much as £5billion to help close the gap though economists have cast doubt on whether such reductions are realistic.

The Chancellor is expected to brand the measures as a “Labour budget” rooted in “Labour values”, reaffirming pledges to abolish the two-child benefit limit, uprate benefits with inflation and boost the national living wage.