Rachel Reeves has had a shaky start as Chancellor. Her decision to remove universal winter fuel payments has been condemned right across the political spectrum. It has been attacked by everyone from Trade Union leaders to her predecessor as Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt. Even top Labour figures such as Ed Balls seem baffled by her approach. The Canterbury MP, Rosie Duffield, cited the decision as one of the reasons she resigned the Labour whip.
The Chancellor likes to present herself as a careful strategist, skilled at thinking several steps ahead in her beloved chess matches. She also champions her time working at the Bank of England, claiming she gained experience studying the travails of the Japanese economy. Yet it’s hard to discern any clear strategy in Reeves’s approach. What is her central economic argument? Nor does Reeves seem to have learned much from what went wrong with Japan’s lost decade. Rather than promoting the growth which she promised to champion while in Opposition, her rhetoric in Government has led to a collapse in business and consumer confidence.
