Hearts & Minds: From reset to relaunch to renewal. The 3Rs of Rachel Reeves

As political set pieces go few are as important as the Spending Review 2025. This was the address that proclaimed the government’s priorities between now and the next election. It was describing how the British state will look, come that poll.

For Rachel Reeves, it was bigger still – this was the chancellor’s speech that could decide whether she stays or goes. Under pressure from within her own party and outside, she had to deliver.

Reeves has a theme, first unveiled in Washington DC in May 2023, when as shadow chancellor she unveiled the idea of ‘securonomics’, putting national security first. It was a clumsy word, not one that tripped off the tongue, unlikely to be widely repeated, but it was scene setting. That was followed by the Mais lecture in March 2024, when Reeves focused on the government ‘s role in tackling economic weakness and deprivation and the obligation to drive growth. Like a rock band, yesterday was the tricky third album, in her case after a difficult year in power.

To accompany the tracks there was a marked softening of image. Her haircut was less severe as was the choice of clothes, a light green buttoned trouser suit rather than the dark zip-up she had been favouring. George Osborne noticeably did the same, in case anyone thinks this observation is sexist.

Unlike that Tory chancellor, however, Reeves did not want herself and Labour to be branded with only making cuts. Her chosen key word was not reset and relaunch - we’ve already had those - but ‘renewal’. With that too, came inclusivity, so this was about ‘national renewal’.

She wanted, needed, supportive backbench cheers and she got them. Her statement was a pointed rejection of Obsorne’s ‘austerity’. Said Reeves: ‘In place of decline, I choose investment. In place of retreat, I choose national renewal.’

She was making ‘Labour choices’, so money will go on the NHS, schools and capital projects outside London and the South-East and across the industrial heartland. Reeves rattled off the places to benefit. It was a surefire bet they would like that, as they did when she was personal: ‘I joined the Labour Party because the Tories didn’t care about schools like mine or people like me.’

This was a spending review. She stuck to being positive. Savings and tax increases required to fund it all can wait until the Budget. A fourth, pared down set awaits. 

Chris Blackhurst is one of the UK’s foremost business journalists. He was previously Editor of The Independent and City Editor of the Evening Standard.