‘I have to forge my own path’: Rachel Reeves on her plans for the economy

Outside a café on the outskirts of Reading, Rachel Reeves is listening to the concerns of small-business owners. ‘Something that has affected us over the past couple of years is our relationship with Europe,’ says an attendee to nods from the others. ‘We end up not trading because it’s not worth it.’

Reeves sticks to the script that there will be no rejoining the EU (‘We’re not going to go back in, that ship has sailed’) but says that relations can be improved. The shadow chancellor is here to support the Labour candidate Yuan Yang, a former FT journalist. It’s one of the final stops on her campaign tour of the UK, which has ranged from Doncaster and Morecambe to Reading and Chipping Norton.

Reeves has spent much of her time meeting as many business leaders as possible and reassuring them that Labour can be trusted on spending. Her team have been trying to eke out something resembling a healthy diet on the road. ‘There was one day when we didn’t have any of our five a day before 4 p.m. and that was a bad day,’ she says, smiling. She watched one of the election debates from the gym on the treadmill.

She’ll need all the energy she can get. Reeves has been billed as the UK’s first female chancellor – though she is keen not to take anything for granted. Even now, when we speak, she never lets ‘if we win’ become ‘when we win’. But others are already making preparations: civil servants have discussed whether the urinal in the chancellor’s private Edwardian bathroom should be removed in anticipation of her arrival. Is Reeves fine with a urinal? ‘Not really,’ she laughs. She says her approach is about ‘smashing glass ceilings and urinals’.