Rachel Reeves gets her chance to put big ideas in the spotlight
Rachel Reeves faces her big moment in the spotlight tonight. Well, a spotlight of a sort – she’s not joining Celebrity Big Brother or turning out for Chelsea Women – but in the world of economics, the Mais Lecture being delivered by the shadow Chancellor on Tuesday evening is a big deal.
This annual event in the City of London has long been an opportunity for chancellors, would-be chancellors and other policy big beasts to set out their vision for boosting Britain’s prosperity.
In 1995, Tony Blair pledged Labour would go even further than the Conservatives in bearing down on inflation. In 2010, George Osborne confirmed that the Tories planned to cut public spending. Two years ago, Rishi Sunak announced his path towards tax cuts.
For Ms Reeves, the focus will be economic growth. Her emphasis on the need to balance the public finances has sparked criticism that a Labour government would not be willing to invest in the future, and would have no mandate to make the radical changes to the status quo that almost every expert agrees are essential, even if there is no agreement on what those changes should be.
The shadow Chancellor’s big idea – to reinvigorate the Blair-era Enterprise and Growth Unit and give it a meaningful say in the content of every Budget – is meant to overcome the Treasury’s “bean-counter” mentality, which sometimes sees the number one task of economic policy as making sure the Office for Budget Responsibility’s spreadsheets add up.
The point of economic and fiscal policy is to make us all more prosperous, to give every citizen a meaningful share in the fruits of a wealthy society. Ms Reeves has more work to do to show how she will achieve that – but this speech may prove a promising start.
