Reeves exerts her influence as power behind the throne

Shadow ministers have one grumble about Rachel Reeves. They say that every time they come up with a policy idea, it is not Sir Keir Starmer they have to impress.

The first step is to go cap in hand to the shadow chancellor, to see whether she believes it would be affordable.

Only if she gives it the seal of approval can the policy be part of its general election manifesto.

Unfortunately, Ms Reeves let one policy slip through the net – Ed Miliband’s pet policy of spending £28billion a year on green investment.

She announced the plan at a Labour conference, at a time when she deemed it affordable. But she has become worried about the cost since Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget.

For months she has waged a behindthe-scenes battle to get the policy scaled back. And now she has won.

Insiders say the decision illustrates her power behind the scenes. Others say it shows how much Sir Keir trusts his shadow chancellor, and how they will work better together in power than Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Ms Reeves was Sir Keir’s second choice as shadow chancellor: when he won his Labour leadership battle in 2020 he appointed the relatively unknown Anneliese Dodds to the number two job. He was worried about the power of the hard-left and did not wish to antagonise them with a centrist as Ms Reeves. He gave her a more minor role, shadowing minister for the Cabinet Office. Ms Reeves had been a member of Ed Miliband’s shadow cabinet, during which time she was described by BBC Newsnight editor Ian Katz as “boring, snoring” in a mistaken Twitter post.

But what was a potential downside is now an advantage. Surveys found that when asked which words they associate with her, “competent” comes top, followed by “intelligent”. (She is very good at chess).

Her tenure has also seen a huge rise in the percentage of people who trust Labour on the economy. Much of that is down to Ms Truss’s mini-budget. But it is also the result of Ms Reeves’s insistence that spending by a Labour government must pass stringent fiscal rules. She and Sir Keir both want a “bomb-proof ” manifesto and have been concerned by Tory attacks on the £28 billion-a-year spending pledge.

Getting rid of it neutralises a key Conservative attack: that Labour is at heart a tax-and-spend party. Another result is that Mr Miliband – who opponents see as a ghost of past failures – has been put in his place.

Just last June, he insisted the party would “never let” an about-turn happen. Now he has let it happen, and will have to put a brave face on his humiliation at the hands of Ms Reeves.

‘Mr Miliband – who opponents see as a ghost of past failures – has been put in his place’