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Reeves doesn't offer enough change, campaigners say
Labour's shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves speaks at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, October 9, 2023

NOT enough change is on offer from shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, campaigners said today following her Labour conference speech.

Speaking after Labour leader Keir Starmer told top bosses that “if we do come into government, you will be coming into government with us,” Ms Reeves made it clear the party would stick with Treasury orthodoxies.

A Momentum spokesman said today “this was a disappointing speech” clinging to outdated views “that the wealthiest can pay no more, that we cannot have the investment the country is crying out for, that key public services should remain in private hands.

“A Labour government which leaves the fundamentals of this failed system in place won’t just fail to fix Britain’s huge problems — it will be blamed for its failure,” he said.

But Ms Reeves won an endorsement from former Bank of England governor and current Bloomberg boss Mark Carney, who recorded a video message for the conference saying that she “understood the economics of work, place and family.”

Mr Carney was joined in his praise by TUC general secretary Paul Nowak, who said that “Labour has a serious plan to deliver an economy that works for working people.”

Ms Reeves won cheers from delegates with renewed pledges to abolish non-domiciled tax status to help fund the NHS, impose a windfall tax on the profits of energy giants and end VAT exemptions for private school fees, with receipts going into the state education system.

She also suggested Labour might try to onshore some industrial production and pledged a clampdown on private jet use by ministers.

But these commitments were intermingled with neoliberal measures such as weakening planning restrictions and pledging to protect big business from litigation that might stand in its way.

“If we want to spur investment, restore economic security, and revive growth then we must get Britain building again,” she said.

Ms Reeves affirmed that Labour’s green industrial plans would depend on three pounds being put in by profit-seeking private sector for every pound of public money.

She dubbed her approach “securonomics,” which involves “putting economic security first and economy rebuilt in the interests of working people.”

It was the interests of big business that was on Sir Keir’s mind.

“I don’t think government can do your job better than you can, and I don’t think we should try, I think that’s a big mistake,” he reassured them at a conference meeting, pledging partnership.

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