Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has insisted a Labour Government will "work in partnership" with the SNP administration in Holyrood.

Speaking at an event for financial service workers at the NatWest headquarters on the outskirts of Edinburgh, she said it would be the only way to “realise the potential of the whole UK economy".

During the event, the Labour frontbencher also denied there would be any return to austerity,  despite her strict fiscal rules. 

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Ms Reeves, a former Bank of England economist, was taking questions alongside Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.

He said there had been too many “manufactured fights” between the devolved administration and Whitehall in recent years.

He said: “We won’t try and pick fights. We will try and work in Scotland’s interest.”

Ms Reeves said Labour wanted a “partnership approach” with the SNP.

“We're only going to realise the potential of the whole UK economy if people in all parts of the UK, every nation and region, are given the opportunity to participate and play their part.

“So you know we would work with the government here and I hope in the future that a Labour government in Westminster will be able to work with a Labour government here in Scotland because there's so many opportunities there but also know it people in Scotland want change, and they want Scotland to be part of that change.

“The more Scottish Labour MPs that we have working with a Labour government in Westminster, the more I think we can deliver for Scotland.

“We would want to work in partnership but also looking forward to the Scottish Parliament elections shortly afterwards, and hope to have a Labour government in both but we've got this election to focus on first."

Ms Reeves said there would be “no return to austerity under a Labour government.”

She also insisted that Labour would “bring down debt as a share of our economy.”

She added: “We would balance day-to-day spending through tax receipts and, subject to that, we’d be able to borrow to invest in things that improve our country’s growth and productivity.”

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However, after her speech a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that both her party and the Tories were “avoiding the reality” that their plans could lock them into “sharp” spending cuts.

In its assessment of the campaign so far, the IFS said forecasts suggest whoever is the chancellor in the autumn will be “fortunate” to meet the fiscal rule of getting debt on a downward path between 2028/29 and 2029/30.

They said it could be difficult for Labour to meet the rule while borrowing £23.7 billion to increase investment in supporting the transition to net zero.

Isabel Stockton, senior research economist at IFS, described the fiscal rule as having “an unfortunate combination of characteristics”.

She added: “It is eminently gameable – and has already been gamed almost to irrelevance by the current Government; it is the loosest debt rule we have had in the past 30 years; and yet it is currently so constraining that it will either be breached, or will result in policies in practice quite different to those currently being peddled.

“It is, to be kind, not a sensible rule, and neither party appears serious about the underlying principle of getting debt falling.

“This has led to both parties avoiding the reality that they are effectively signed up to sharp spending cuts, while arguing over smaller changes to taxes and spending.”

Meanwhile, writing in The Herald, Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, economist and Principal of the University of Glasgow, warned that there was "no alternative to re-booting growth." 

He said while pandemic support schemes such as furlough and business support "were essential to avoid economic disaster" they had left the UK with a post-war high level of debt.

"The UK and Italy have the highest debt service costs in the G7, with the UK spending 4% of GDP in interest payments in 2022 compared to 2.1% in 2019.

"As the IFS show in their illustrative scenarios, the fiscal rules which both main parties are sticking by may require serious cuts in spending for unprotected public sector budgets between 2024-25 and 2028-29.

"Both main parties have also ruled out major increases in taxes of around £20bn which would be needed to offset those cuts.

"In any case there will be more unforeseen demands on the public purse – and from defence to other spending areas, indicative electoral promises are accumulating fast."