Speculation mounts over Rachel Reeves's position as Chancellor of the Exchequer after her recent economic plans faced criticism. The article explores the potential for her replacement and the options Starmer faces, including the contrasting styles of Yvette Cooper and Pat McFadden.
The Chancellor's plan to steady the economy and build from the foundations could work out in the long term, although even Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer have stopped claiming they will deliver the fastest growth in the G7. In the short term, the Chancellor's choices have made things worse, hence the mounting speculation on her future. The quickest change the Prime Minister could make would be replacing his struggling Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Prime ministers are loath to get rid of their chancellors, since they are usually implicated in their chancellors’ failed policies. Prime ministers sometimes have to replace their chancellors, and a new broom at the Treasury is the only way to buy time for a government. Starmer’s professional relationship with Reeves is exceptionally close. They paraded together like Labour’s Ant and Dec during the election campaign. They have much in common: a certain flinty stubbornness, the conviction that they are right, and insensitivity to the political mood. All the same, Starmer has form for letting other heads roll to ease his own discomfort. The 19th-century PM William Gladstone said “the first essential for a prime minister is to be a good butcher”. In that quality at least Starmer has measured up as Anneliese Dodds, Louise Haigh, Sam White and Sue Gray all know to their cost.Reeves is due to deliver her “spring forecast” on 26 March, followed by the spending and defence reviews by the end of June. Quite apart from any dim view the markets may take, her credibility will be destroyed if, as seems probable, she has to break any of the rules she has set for herself – either her fiscal rules against increasing borrowing or her reiterated promise not to put up taxes again for “working people”. Her only short-term escape route may well be savage cuts in public spending, which could strain to breaking point the parliamentary majority that Starmer so relies on. For him a fresh start with a new chief financial officer would be a better option. Who might get the promotion? The names being canvassed around Westminster underline the dilemma which has troubled Starmer since he became leader. Should he go Brownite with Yvette Cooper, as suggested in headlines this week, opting for cautious calculation and postponing hard choices for as long as possible? Or is there a more confrontational option available with a Blairite such as Pat McFadden or Wes Streeting? The public may be bored with the old Blair-Brown divisions but it is a live issue which is increasingly polarising the Cabinet. Ministers are resentful at being under the Treasury’s cosh, while simultaneously discouraged from developing radical, game-changing plans. Expediency may well lead Starmer to replace his Chancellor this year. The unadventurous appointment of Cooper, the surviving arch Brownite in the cabinet, might make him feel more secure in his own position initially
Rachel Reeves Keir Starmer Labour Party UK Economy Chancellor Of The Exchequer Budget Political Speculation
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