Kevin Schofield is HuffPost UK's political editor and is based at Westminster. He has been a political journalist for more than 20 years, and in that time has worked for the Press Association, The Scotsman, The Herald, Daily Record, The Sun and PoliticsHome.
All that hard work came to fruition last July when, after 14 years of the Tories’ economic under-performance, the country finally decided that Reeves and her party could be trusted with the public finances again.
The value of the pound – an indicator of the money markets’ confidence in the country – is falling, while inflation is going up and the economic growth Labour promised remains stubbornly elusive. The Office for Budget Responsibility will deliver its eagerly-anticipated verdict on the state of the economy in March, and few expect it to be anything other than more bad news for the chancellor.
Although Labour insiders insist there is “no chance” of the prime minister dumping his chancellor, it is clear that grumblings about her performance are growing louder.Polling by Savanta, seen by HuffPost UK, shows that Reeves’ net favourability with the public is a miserable -20, making her less popular with voters than cabinet colleagues like Wes Streeting, Yvette Cooper and Angela Rayner.
“Labour are undoubtedly playing the long game, banking on difficult decisions made now bearing fruit in time for re-election, but as the pressure on Reeves rises, so will the temptation to run a different course to save her own personal ratings.”One cabinet colleague said the chancellor “has to change the public mood”, but admitted her options for doing so are limited.
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