Ian Murray insists it is ‘completely wrong’ to say Labour politicians knew they would have to make public spending cuts as big as what they do prior to the general election in July.

The Scottish Secretary echoed Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ claims that a £22billion black hole in the UK Government’s finances had been hidden by their predecessors in the Conservatives party.

She warned of future tax rises on Monday as she announced a host of measures being used to address the overspend, and it has resulted in Labour coming under fire for their their pre-election pledge of no austerity under their party.

The SNP had written to the Chancellor when news came out about the black hole last week and demanded an apology to the public after they had been accused of misleading them by Labour in the lead up to the election about the issues that would arise.

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Scotland’s public finance minister, Ivan McKee, has now said the Chancellor ‘absolutely should have known’ about the need to make cuts but that is something Mr Murray disagrees with.

The Holyrood minister told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “Labour should have known about this. They’ve either been incompetent in not checking the numbers, which were readily available during the election campaign, or they’ve been very misleading about the process that’s happened here.”

Asked whether the cuts amount to austerity, he said the Chancellor had “been very clear that there will be more cuts coming on top of what’s already happened with the winter fuel payments, which is very concerning, so it’s absolutely austerity and there’s no doubt about that”.

Mr McKee added that the Scottish Government will now have “some difficult decisions to make”, after First Minister John Swinney warned the speech would mean a reduction in the funding allocation Scotland receives.

He also took aim at Scottish Labour politicians who, he said, had ruled out a return to austerity.

“During the election campaign Ian Murray said it was ‘mince’ that there was going to be Labour austerity cuts as a consequence of electing a Labour Government, so, when you’ve got him on your programme, maybe get him to eat that ‘mince’, because he’s been absolutely proved wrong.”

Speaking on the radio programme, Mr Murray said it is not the case that the Scottish Government will receive a smaller settlement as a result of the announcement.

Responding to Mr McKee’s claims, he said: “He is completely and utterly wrong. He is comparing apples with pears. This is a £22 billion in-year overspend by the previous government that they hid from the Office for Budget Responsibility, which is the independent body which measures these things.

“Ivan McKee has got this completely wrong. It has got nothing to do with the arguments we had during the election campaign.”

Pressed on the promise of no austerity, he said: “There’s no wholesale cuts here.”