As Rachel Reeves battles to survive, Labour needs to stop the self-inflicted mistakes
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has further damaged Labour’s credibility by making an avoidable mistake
To use a suddenly popular cricketing metaphor, Chancellors have long ‘rolled the pitch’ before the Budget to test public and market reactions to controversial policies or prepare people for bad news in the hope it won’t seem so terrible when it comes.
However, Rachel Reeves’ decision to deliver a pre-Budget speech to warn taxpayers that “if we are to build the future of Britain together, we will all have to contribute to that effort… each of us must do our bit...” was something different, something decidedly more formal.
If ‘sources close to the Chancellor’ had said exactly the same thing as she did in her speech about poor productivity figures – while omitting to mention that tax receipts were better than expected – no one would now be accusing her of being misleading or even lying about the state of the country’s finances.
A sin of omission
To be clear, there was nothing incorrect about what Reeves said. Instead this was a sin of omission, but that can still create a false impression.
It was an error of judgment that is now exercising the Westminster bubble and also, with the Scottish Parliament election looming, John Swinney and the SNP.
We suspect the public may be more sanguine. Reeves didn’t tell the whole story at the time, but we got that in the Budget and the associated commentary from the Office for Budget Responsibility. It all came out in the end.
However, even if this affair in and of itself does not bring down the Chancellor, it is a sign of how politically inept the current Labour government can be.
This was yet another entirely self-inflicted wound. The sort of episode that gradually whittles politicians’ credibility away.
While the Budget imposed a whopping £26 billion in tax rises and failed to reduce the tax burden on the struggling oil and gas industry, the markets seemed reasonably content, happy that Reeves was sticking to her fiscal rules.
As long as she retains their confidence, she is probably safe. But if Labour keeps on lofting up soft catches to the Opposition fielders at mid-wicket, they won’t be.
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