Sir Keir Starmer has declared Britain “needs to get closer” to the EU, and claimed the country’s Brexit deal has “hurt the economy”, in a speech defending Rachel Reeves’ Budget.

His comments came as Ms Reeves faced accusations of misleading the country over the nation’s finances, after it emerged no ‘black hole’ existed, despite her repeated claims otherwise.

Sir Keir Starmer said: “Let me be crystal clear, there is no credible economic vision for Britain that does not position us as an open, trading economy. So we must all now confront the reality that the Brexit deal we have significantly hurt our economy, and so for economic renewal, we have to keep reducing frictions. ”

Speaking at a press conference today, he insisted that the UK needs to “keep moving towards a closer relationship with the EU” and boasted that Britain’s relationship with Brussels had been “reset”.

Sir Keir, who voted for, campaigned for and backed remaining in the EU, said the country needed to be “grown up” about it.

Pressed on whether Ms Reeves misled Britons before delivering her manifesto-breaking Budget, he said he would defend [the Budget] any day of the week, and insisted it was fair and necessary.

He also defended breaking his manifesto commitment not to raise taxes on working people, claiming his policies were “good for growth”.

Mr Starmer repeatedly insisted that he and Ms Reeves did not mislead the country ahead of the budget, despite their claims that the country had a “black hole” in its finances.

It later emerged that they had both been aware that this was not the case.

He claimed that he had made the claims after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) issued a productivity review, the result of which was “£16bn less than we might have otherwise had”.

Sir Keir claimed there was “no misleading” from Ms Reeves, following questions from journalists over Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch calling on the Chancellor to resign.