Rachel Reeves insisted she was never questioned about her expenses as questions continued to swirl about her banking career before entering politics.

The Chancellor attempted to defend herself from allegations she was probed about the misuse of expenses while working at Halifax Bank in the 2000s.

A bombshell BBC exposé, published yesterday, revealed that a Whistleblower reported Ms Reeves to bosses accusing her of spending hundreds of pounds on handbags, perfume, earrings and wine.

The internal audit team found evidence of wrongdoing by Ms Reeves and her two colleagues, it is claimed, before passing the findings to the risk department in April 2009.

However, the next interview stage did not take place, nor is there evidence it reached a conclusion.

In a stuttering performance, the Chancellor insisted she was “never questioned” over her expenses while working at HBOS.

In her first comments the under-fire minister insisted: “No-one ever raised any concerns about my expenses when I worked for Halifax Bank of Scotland.

“I submitted, had processed and had my expenses signed off in the proper way as you would expect and no issues were ever raised during my time at HBOS.”

She stumbled when asked how she wasn’t aware of an investigation going on into her while many of her colleagues did.

The BBC discovered comments in a Facebook group for former employees of Halifax, which alluded to an issue about her expenses.

Ms Reeves insisted: “I don’t know what they are saying, and of course none of them have gone on the record.

“These concerns were never raised with me during the time I worked at HBOS, and I’m really proud of the work I did both as an economist at the Bank of England and later for Halifax Bank of Scotland.”

The Chancellor also dodged questions about why she had been forced to make yet another change to her CV, after she admitted to exaggerating the time spent working for the Bank of England.

Despite repeatedly claiming to have spent nearly 10 years working at Threadneedle Street, she now admits to spending less than six years there working as an analyst.

Treasury sources insisted the latest error was an administrative mistake by a member of her team.

It’s the second major amendment to her LinkedIn profile since becoming Chancellor, after she was caught exaggerating her role at HBOS.

Questioned about the latest inaccuracy, Ms Reeves argued voters will “judge me on the job I’m doing now as Chancellor of the Exchequer, to grow the economy and put more money in the pockets of working people”.

Responding to her interview, shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said: “There are very serious questions for the Chancellor, and she has now repeatedly failed to answer them.”

“From false claims on her CV to plagiarism and allegations of expenses misconduct, Rachel Reeves must now provide a full and honest account.

“Not doing so will undermine the very trust that Keir Starmer has pledged to restore.”

Labour also launched a bitter feud with the BBC this morning, who published the claims earlier this week, accusing the public broadcaster of publishing “totally inaccurate” allegations.

Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle blasted the BBC, telling Radio 4: “Unfortunately, the reporting has been totally inaccurate, and we heard yesterday that the person who was actually head of HR at that bank at that time says it’s untrue, said that she never, ever receive a file on Rachel Reeves.

“And she says that before she left the bank, there was no investigation that passed her desk. And she’s also said if there was one, it would have passed her desk.

“I didn’t see any of that reporting included in the story I read yesterday evening on the BBC website.”

Ironically the senior minister was wrong to claim there had been “no investigation”, as the HBOS Internal Audit team did conduct a probe following the original whistleblowing complaint in 2009.

However the subsequent interview stages of the investigation process did not progress, and no conclusion was reached before Ms Reeves left the company in May that year.

On Thursday her team insisted she left on “good terms”, with a “severance payment, including full notice pay and a bonus.”