Labour is being consumed by civil war, and Rachel Reeves is collateral damage. One man has her back, though: energy secretary Ed Miliband. He leapt to her defence this morning after her record was hammered by a fellow cabinet member. But in doing so, he only confirmed that Labour still hasn’t got answers to the problems afflicting our economy. This rabble will be thrown out by voters at the first opportunity.
This morning, Reeves suffered yet another public humiliation after health secretary Wes Streeting published private messages between himself and creepy old Lord Mandelson. The aim was to show they weren’t especially close. Streeting is widely rumoured to be thick as thieves with the Prince of Darkness, but that isn’t a good look as police raid his home over Jeffrey Epstein links. It could kill his hopes of replacing Keir Starmer as Prime Minister.
In his rush to exonerate himself, Streeting managed to shove Reeves even deeper into the mire. One message criticised her for lacking a “growth strategy”. In Streeting’s defence, I suspect he didn’t even consider that an insult. He probably assumed it was common knowledge.
If the Chancellor had a growth strategy, the economy might actually be growing. Instead, she’s carpet-bombed it to a halt. That’s what happens when you tax the life out of businesses and consumers, then shovel the proceeds into benefits and the unproductive public sector.
On Sky News this morning, Miliband was quizzed on Streeting’s damning message and replied: “I think that actually Rachel has done a very good job as Chancellor. » That’s a pretty underwhelming endorsement. Clearly struggling, Miliband tried again saying: “I think we’ve seen the stability that’s essential… and that’s because of the decisions Rachel made too.”
Stability is Labour’s go-to word. Starmer nor Reeves can’t mention the economy without reaching for it. Usually it’s “restoring stability”, sometimes varied to “fixing the foundations”. Either way, it’s rot.
Reeves inherited an economy that was finally starting to grow and crushed the life out of it. Today, nothing is fixed. Nothing is stable. Inflation is twice the level seen in Europe. Interest rates are higher too. Unemployment has leapt from 4.1% to 5.1%. That isn’t stability, it’s a social disaster, as Labour’s own employment Tsar Alan Milburn has just pointed out.
Reeves has lifted our taxes to an all-time high and still needs to borrow £150billion a year. Now it looks like she’ll blow through her fiscal headroom for a third time, paving the way for yet more tax rises this autumn.
Can Miliband name a single thing in the last Budget that restored stability? It was chaos from start to finish, killing confidence and investment.
Asked why voters should choose Labour, Miliband gave his warped verdict: “For too long this country has been run for the wealthy and powerful, and that needs to change.”
I’m sure that goes down well at his Marxist knitting group but the big problem that we’re being run by people who don’t understand how a modern, post-industrial economy works. Miliband’s reckless, ideological dash to net zero is piling costs onto households and businesses alike, while gambling with our energy security. He is part of the problem. So is Reeves. Neither have a solution in their head.
Ranting about the “wealthy and powerful” just underlines how little Labour understands the mess it has created. Things are getting worse by the day and Miliband has confirmed Labour has no idea how to fix it. Rachel Reeves certainly doesn’t. Even her colleagues know that.
