Hearts & Minds: Rachel's Laughs

There is an art to constructing a Budget speech, certainly one as long as that delivered by Rachel Reeves yesterday.

Tradition demands the chancellor covers specific ground. Given this was Labour’s first for 14 years, it was also bound to be especially long. In all, Reeves stood, reading, for an hour and 20 minutes. It was a marathon display.

At crucial moments, Reeves and her comms advisors inserted some light relief. Two stood out. Both elicited from the packed benches behind her the biggest roars of the afternoon.

One was the raising of alcohol duty. The Tories had previously frozen the levy, Labour was going to return to raising it in line with inflation. That was bound to be disliked. So, she paused, theatrically. All except draught beer, its charge would fall by 1.7%, the equivalent of a penny off a pint. Cue roars of approval. Cue too, the tabloid headlines and the raising of glasses to her in the nation’s pubs. Cheers Rachel.

Her move showed how it was possible to mask bad news. The Scotch Whisky Association thought they had gained the Prime Minister’s support; instead, Sir Keir Starmer’s chancellor hit them with increased tax. Protests from the normally voluble Scots were lost amid the applause for the beer reduction. Similarly, the nation’s wine drinkers were worse off. It didn’t matter: the penny off a pint stole the show.

The other was aviation. Air passenger duty would be rising and that would make holidays more expensive. Again, an unpopular decision. So, Reeves chose to single out private jets, hardly the most common form of transport. In what was her best moment, Reeves lifted her head and looked straight at Rishi Sunak, sitting opposite. “I can see the right honourable gentleman’s ears have pricked up,” referring to the soon-to-depart wealthy Tory leader’s penchant for private jet travel. “That is equivalent to £450 per passenger for a private jet to, say, California?” she added, referring to the home he keeps in Santa Monica and the speculation, which he denies, that after the new leader is announced he will head there. Again, laughter all round. Again, it was a takeaway, to be much-repeated and shown afterwards.

It was smart, showing the power of the carefully crafted narrative, even when delivering the most formal of speeches. Inevitably, much of her address was dull and contained unwelcome information, but she still managed to send her audience away smiling.

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.