SOARING borrowing costs and plunging polling figures greeted Sir Keir Starmer’s reshuffle as confusion reigned concerning who is in charge of economic policy.

Speculation was growing that the skids were under Chancellor Rachel Reeves after the Prime Minister imported three economic experts into No 10 to strengthen his personal grip on policy.

The price of government debt financing rose to a 28-year high amid concerns that the City’s favourite, Ms Reeves, might be losing political altitude.

And latest polling showed Labour falling still further behind hard-right Reform UK, which is now nine points ahead.

But Downing Street denied there was any rift, or any crisis. A spokesman said the reshuffle reflected “a strengthening of the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, a determination to drive growth in the economy.”

He also recommitted to the notorious fiscal rules which have kept Labour’s agenda in a bond market-imposed straitjacket.

The spokesman continued: “The Prime Minister and the Chancellor want the strongest possible team on the pitch to drive economic growth.”

That team now includes Ms Reeves’s former deputy Darren Jones in the new role of the premier’s own “chief secretary” as well as Baroness Shafik, a former head honcho at the Bank of England and Treasury mandarin Dan York-Smith all in Starmer’s office.

Reform UK is leading Labour by nine points on 29 per cent in the YouGov poll, up by one on the previous week.

Labour is on 20 per cent while the Tories are on 17, the Liberal Democrats 15  and the Greens 10.