Britain's new Treasury chief is alleging that the previous government covered up the dire state of the nation's finances, as she prepares to deliver a major speech to Parliament on Monday that is widely expected to lay the groundwork for higher taxes.

In extracts of her speech released late Sunday, Rachel Reeves professed shock at the scale of the problems she discovered following a department-by-department review of public spending commissioned shortly after she took office three weeks ago. In a post on the social media platform X on Monday, the Labour Party confirmed that the Treasury review has identified a 20 billion-pound ($26 billion) shortfall in the public finances.