Rachel Reeves WhatsApps former chancellor Jeremy Hunt and is in contact “regularly” with Gordon Brown and Sir Tony Blair, she has told the BBC.

The Chancellor told BBC Radio 5 Live ahead of next week’s Budget that she “would love” to be able to speak to Alistair Darling – who died last year – as the last Labour occupant of the Treasury.

Ms Reeves is due to deliver her first Budget next week, as she tries to repair what Labour have been calling the “£22 billion black hole” in the public finances.

Speaking to the radio station from Number 11, in an interview broadcast on Wednesday, Ms Reeves said that she and the ex-Conservative chancellor “do WhatsApp each other”.

“I think we’ve always had a good relationship,” she added.

“I may not be particularly impressed with the state of the public finances that he left me, but I do recognise that after Kwasi Kwarteng he had a tough job to do as well.”

Ms Reeves will be looking to raise up to £40 billion from tax hikes and spending cuts in order to avoid a return to austerity in next Wednesday’s fiscal statement.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown served as chancellor under Sir Tony between 1997 and 2007, and was in Number 10 during the financial crisis in 2008.

Ms Reeves told 5Live: “I speak to Gordon regularly, I also speak to Tony Blair regularly.

“The person I actually would love to be able to pick up the phone to now would be Alistair Darling (…) the last Labour chancellor to deliver a Budget.

“He died last November, at the end of last year. But I hope that he would be proud of what I’m doing as the next Labour chancellor after him.”

Ms Reeves also told the programme that she has got a cat called Pumpkin following “pressure” from her children.

Earlier this year, the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer confirmed that he had got a new pet Siberian kitten named Prince after “negotiating” with his children.

Speaking to 5Live, Ms Reeves confirmed that she had followed suit to the Prime Minister.

“I think both of us under pressure from our children,” she added.