Security, security, security was the message from Chancellor Rachel Reeves as she addressed the Labour party today in Liverpool. A Labour government, she said, would stand for a British economy first. An economy that would put the British worker above all else.
That, Reeves proclaimed, was the key difference between a Labour government and a Tory one. In fact, the line ‘don’t let anyone tell you there is no difference between a Labour government and a Conservative government’ was delivered so many times that by the fifth or sixth iteration it received only limp applause.
The Conservatives were the main target of Reeves’s speech; they mismanaged the economy and allowed growth to stagnate for 14 years. This seemed an attack from an age we no longer live in. She only turned on Reform half-an-hour into the speech.
Securonomics is first a national project, Reeves told attendees. ‘Where things are made and who makes them does matter’, she said. She declared that she was ‘putting Britain first’, and eulogised the importance of ‘British ships and British forged steal’.
But the Chancellor also said that it her vision of a ‘secure’ economy will see individual workers benefit too. They will be employed in ‘good unionised jobs’ in a country ‘founded on contribution and opportunity’, where ‘hard work is matched by fair reward’.
Anyone who cares about economic prosperity would struggle to pick holes in that message. In a world turning towards Trumpian protectionism and away from free markets, her words were exactly on brand. The trouble is that it’s hard to point to concrete actions the Chancellor has taken in the past 12 months that could build a secure, ‘British first’, economy.
Still, Reeves delivered her message with confidence. She dispatched a pro-Gaza heckler early on with an impromptu, Morgan McSweeney-esque response on the importance of power over protest. Labour is the ‘party of government, not a party of protest’, the Chancellor said.
Reeves also spoke of the importance of controlling inflation and tackling the cost of living crisis. To do that, Labour must be firm on those – the mayor of Manchester – who say we can do away with fiscal prudence and drown ourselves in even more debt. Great. But the policies Reeves delivered in her first Budget last autumn are now widely considered to have been the cause of that cost-of-living crisis. Her £25 billion raid on employer national insurance, coupled with the increase in the minimum wage is what have piled costs on retailers and sent food inflation skywards past 5 per cent.
Those same policies, and the upcoming workers rights bill, are also what have caused nearly 150,000 payrolled jobs to disappear over the course of a year. Reeves is perhaps finding that delivering policies aimed at propping up the worker, increasing their pay and improving their – already generous – rights are not compatible with building an economy ‘secure’ for all.
On growth, the Chancellor pointed to the India and US trade deals, but with the Indian deal worth only 0.1 per cent of GDP she has much further to go.
Rachel Reeves has talked the talk on fiscal prudence, job creation and creating a secure economy. But if she is serious about delivering on her promises, she has to re-evaluate her actions in power.
Hear Michael’s analysis on today’s Coffee House Shots podcast:
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