Coffee House Shots
Who was the real audience for Rachel Reeves’s speech?
The Spectatio magazine is the greatest magazine in English language. Subscribe today for just £12 and receive a 12-week subscription in print and online to see for yourselves. Also, against my advice as editor, we're giving away a free £20 John Lewis or Waitrose voucher. Given that you're spending 12 quid, you can do the maths. Go to spectatio.co.uk/voucher But don't hurry, because this offer probably loses us money. Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shot's Spectator's Daily Politics Podcast. I'm Katie Bools and I'm joined by James Hill and we are in Liverpool for Labour Party Conference. We just heard from Rachel Reeves, it was a chance that there's big speech and here is what she had to say. Conference, I believe in a better Britain. A Britain of opportunity, fairness and enterprise. I know that countries sometimes felt far off in recent years. As our growth, our productivity and family finances fall behind. But it doesn't have to be that way. The British capacity for inventiveness, enterprise and old-fashioned hard work has not gone away. So believe me when I say, my optimism for Britain burns brighter than ever. James, do you think there was a change in tech from Rachel Reeves? Obviously, we've had quite a bit of doom and gloom. Is she trying to turn a corner? I think there's an attempt to try and build a more comprehensive vision for what she wants to do as chancellor. She kept referring to that's the Labour Party. I lead, that's the Labour government I serve in, the country I want to build. And I think there was very much more a sense of prunes with a purpose. So we had previously, obviously, the black hole, the warning about what they discovered when they came to Treasury. This was to say, yes, there will be tough decisions ahead, but actually there will be a reward for that. And that will be having an exciting dynamic country in which to live. Yeah, as you say, I think it was a slight repositioning. But it wasn't a U-turn as such in the sense that she was quite clear. She'd stick with them into fuel allowance cut. She said she realised not everyone would agree of her and there would be critics. But she needed to continue with that par. She talked about that 22 billion black hole or so-called black hole. And again, said, well, I have to fix it now. We have to take the steps. That means we can be optimistic in the future. So it was more the add-on and to your point as you say. It was almost, I think, you've had the prudence and now they're trying to get to the purpose and the more comprehensive picture. I also think that in that hole, she got a very, very long standing ovation at the end. And it was pretty supportive, which you did have heckless. You had people who are unhappy with Labour's position when it comes to arms. And they basically, and arms sales. And they intervened there. But it didn't really seem to cause too much fat. And actually, I think in recent years, Labour politicians have almost come to quite like it when they get these protesters. She used pretty much the same line that Qistama has used to know. The Labour Party has changed, you know, we're no longer a party of protest. So I think, in a way, that was probably the easiest bit of her speech. The harder thing is this triangulation of trying to warn about difficult decisions coming, while keeping your party on side, while also sounding optimistic enough not just to your base, but to business. And I think when you're thinking about what Rachel Ruse is trying to do and where they think they might have overdone it a bit, I think privately there is a sense that not hugely regret some of the messaging previously, but just a sense that maybe they did misfire and they did go a bit too heavy on the negativity. And that's not because, actually, I don't think the main problem is that you see in some polls that the Labour government is not very popular the less than 100 days in. I think the bigger problem, the bigger concern in the treasury amongst Rachel Ruse's allies is bringing in to dent business confidence, because you have, you know, I think there's an IOD survey suggesting, but also consumer confidence is beginning to dent. There are figures, you know, just last week the suggested consumer confidence was down. You had Andy Haldane, former, you know, Bank of England economist, ultimately saying that this is a mistake because you should have the new government come in it should be going for that stability premium that Rachel Ruse has spoken about. Instead, talking down the economy while it might be a political tactic and also some of it is obviously true. In terms of there are some, you look at the public dent and spending, you know, it's not particularly pretty picture at the moment. But are all these things starting to actually hamper what Rachel Ruse is really doing to get growth, which is to try and attract lots of private investment. And she talked today about that investment summit coming up. So I think this is, I think while the audience in the hall of course there are donors there and some business figures was largely in the grassroots. I think that the audience that they're really keen to kind of quite quickly land this new narrative with is business. And James, I suppose just taking a step back at Congress, what are the main stories so far? Because I think we can agree that going into the Labour Party conference on Saturday, you know, the day that Kirstalmer arrives, having the main story on Labour not being changed begins, which is a slogan, but Prime Minister will now pay for his own clothes. Isn't exactly ideal. No, yes, suboptimal, I'd say Katie. So that was one of the story obviously dominating. The other was about Sue Gray, which is sort of linked in terms of sort of salary and pay and conditions you set. And I think going in, there was a sense perhaps of, you know, people were speculating. But the very fact that ministers have to come out and say that Sue Gray will probably still be in her job. You know, it's a bit like when the board gives a voter confidence in a football manager and they don't tend to last you well after that. And also, of course, the fact that Sue Gray is not here. And we had a, you know, Sue Gray did appear at conference last year. So, I mean, the official reason is that there's a very big summit coming up and she's going to work on that. But I think the very fact that you had, you know, both Morgan McSweeney and Sue Gray at party conference last year does mean there is a feeling amongst the Labour figures that, you know, I've had some say, well, it's probably just as well as she didn't come because it would have become a media circus. You can imagine her walking, you know, through the conference hall, something just cameras chasing her, hot mics. So, you know, it's probably the best decision when you've had all these stories about her. But I think the very fact that is, you know, whatever her own reason, the very fact that is the thinking of Labour ministers and Labour aides in regards to her shows that she, you know, she is in the dangerous place where kids starmer clearly still supports her, but she has become the story. And that's always quite uncomfortable for an advisor who's not meant to be. And history suggests number 10 chief of staffs who become the story don't tend to last too long. For all the talk about resets, I mean, we remember endless resets under Boris Johnson. I was chatting to one MP last night who said there'll probably be a reset coming. I thought, my God, this was a Labour government that was elected three months ago with its second biggest majority in history. So I think, weirdly, this doesn't feel like the sort of first year party conference of a newly elected government. This feels almost like year three or four. And I think there's a sort of weariness among some. Yes, a lot of activists are very happy and delighted to see friends of theirs, all sort of people are respected, elected as new members, et cetera. But I think there's, I think perhaps less of the kind of celebration we saw in 2022 and 2023, partly because they expect to win for so long. And now, of course, you know, as you say, Katie, the fact that the chief of staff, an election winning chief of staff, is in the spotlight so much, I think, puts a damper on it to an extent. Is it all feeling a bit Boris Johnson 2019? Well, you know, Labour sleeves in this case, but involving close gate. You have, you know, questions of who funded, who's party, now it's Bridget Phillips and then you also have that number 10 discord, which, you know, Labour often attack. And maybe we've thrown a little bit of austerity, though. Rachel Reese has said this is not a return to austerity, but we're willing to feel. I mean, I think you can say that the Boris Johnson sleeves was of a more serious level for the end of it than what we're seeing here. But the themes of which, which is, you know, government having to defend quite a lot of things, it's done itself and self inflation areas, it is a parallel. Yeah. And you're squandering, not spending political capital. And you think of the things that brought down Boris Johnson, these silly, stupid routes. They weren't sort of great matters of state in the end. It was basically, you know, things to do with party gate and sort of personal property. So I think there's a warning there. And some have kissed on as more vociferous defenders. There's a degree to which the same with Boris, oh, this doesn't matter. This is a media bubble story. What's the media going off to Labour? And I think that doesn't tend to end well if you're saying that. Yeah, I mean, I do think, you know, I don't think it is a serious issue. It's serious as some of the Tory sleues stories we've been in the slightest. But I think the problem, of course, has kissed on and just spent so long leading on it with Labour that it does just mean that they are facing questions on it. And I think when Labour politicians, which has happened to fair bit, say, oh, it's the right-wing press, the right-wing press don't give us a fair hearing. That's we, I don't think, I don't think the public particularly sympathised when it sounds a bit like you're playing the victim card. But also, you do have to remember, you know, Labour do get a really tough time from some of the newspapers and publications, of course. But they also have publications that support them. And it was the Daily Mail who uncovered wallpaper gate. So it's not as though perhaps Boris Johnson had more of a honeymoon or a bit more time before some of the papers moved in slightly. But he did get, you know, a lot of heat came from what are so-called the right-wing press. Just to say as well, I mean, he said the standards for which he's judged, so partly that's what sleues. But also his own criticism in number 10 wasn't that the whole failure was broke, the system was broken and failure. As I'd argue, most number 10s for the past 15 years have. He didn't argue it was a systemic or kind of institutional failure. He argued it was a personal failure, it was Tory failure. So if he'd come in and say, look, the system is broken, maybe I think people would have a much more degree of sympathy with some of the stuff that goes on and some of these stories coming out. But instead, he didn't do that. He suggested that you sort the blues out of the red one and a lot of these things will go away and actually turns out they haven't. And I suppose looking ahead, we had Richard Reeves give her a speech. Are we expecting much excitement on the conference floor, James? Or, I mean, I don't feel like any ministers are allowed to spend money in their speeches, which slightly limits how much you can do. I mean, we did have Darren Jones predicting, we're not predicting. He said he believed Labour could be in a path of five terms, which seems a little bit optimistic on current polling, but you never know. Yeah, I saw a senior number 10a coming down the lift distance, and I said, you're looking forward to the next 24 of these. And so I'm not sure how they gave me a right smile. I think that it's all been very carefully kind of vetted the speeches. I mean, it's striking that in Richard Reeves' announcement today, it's about free breakfast clubs and there's doing a pilot to that. And that amounts to just £7 million worth of spending, which is nothing in this kind of grand scheme of government finances. So I think what we're going to be expecting is the similar themes about change and what they're doing in individual departments. I thought it was clever that Rachel Reeves, for instance, refocused about from consumer confidence to go into about COVID corruption, and she had a nice sort of Thatcher line, which said it, we want our money back. So I think we'll see more of that in the Prime Minister's speech tomorrow. It won't be brief as a reset, but kind of reframing the whole conference going into the budget in next month. And showing that there is a grip. Thank you, James, and thank you for listening. [MUSIC]