Rachel Reeves is a one-woman wrecking ball and Britain cannot put up with her any longer. By Harvey Jones
Chancellor Rachel Reeves really has gone too far now. Almost from day one, Labour’s chancellor has been a disaster. She hasn’t just trashed the UK economy and smashed confidence, she’s sunk her own party too. Reeves single-handedly wiped out Labour’s popularity within weeks of its general election landslide, and has treated us to a virtuoso display of political and economic incompetence ever since. She’s a disaster for her boss too, dragging Sir Keir Starmer into one calamity after another. Yes, he's a total pudding, but he would be in a better position if he had a halfway competent chancellor. Yet he still hasn’t got the guts to remove her. Now he HAS to act.
Labour stormed the 2024 election but within weeks the nation had turned on the party as one. The reason? Rachel Reeves. Her decision to axe the winter fuel payment for 10 million pensioners will go down as an all-time political howler. It was supposed to show she was tough. But that was only a taste of what was coming our way. Reeves then scared the life out of businesses and taxpayers by warning of a brutal maiden Budget months in advance. It was actually worse than expected, hammering farmers, pensioners, savers, small businesses and sending unemployment to the stars thanks to her infamous 'jobs tax'. And still she was only getting into her stride.
Incredibly, her second Budget was even worse. The economy froze altogether as Britons braced for another £26billion smash and grab. Reeves threw in a humiliating flip-flop over income tax for good measure. She drones on about having a plan, restoring stability, creating growth, while the economy dies all around. We've just been handed fresh evidence today, with figures showing the economy shrank again in April. She'll blame Iran. But that's on her.
Reeves is a long-running, one-woman farce but yesterday she surpassed herself. And piled yet more humiliation on Starmer. Right from the start, she's refused to properly fund the nation's defence. She could find £27.8billion of core capital to fund her National Wealth Fund, which is a massive vanity project that's been burning cash even faster than Reeves normally does. But she couldn't find a similar sum to defend the nation and meet our NATO commitments. Does she know there's a war on? It's in a country called Ukraine. Next to Russia. Or maybe she just thinks that weapons are nasty things and we shouldn't buy them. Plenty on the left do.
Her failure helped trigger the resignation of John Healey from his post as defence minister. Healey is that vanishingly rare thing. A respected Labour cabinet member. Or rather, he was. He quit after exposing the reality that Britain’s armed forces are now unfit for purpose, and blamed Reeves for blocking urgently needed funds. Britain’s forces – once the envy of the world – are now a laughing stock. She's destroyed the British army, something even Hitler couldn't do. And she's sunk Starmer too. Again. The PM is now living on borrowed time.
Starmer and Reeves were inseparable during the general election. Everyone felt they would rise and fall together. That has to change. If Starmer has any sense, and any instinct for self-preservation, he would fire her immediately. A grateful nation would celebrate. It would be one of the few genuinely popular things he's done.
Reeves is a calamity. But she hasn't just inflicted suicidal economic policies on the UK, she's blown up the Labour Party too. It'll be lucky to ever get into power again. And still Keir Starmer still doesn't have the brains or guts to fire her. Frankly, he deserves what he gets. We don't. She must go.
