A defining test of Labour too

Economy is the key battleground

RISHI SUNAK’S political – and public – stock continues to rise less than six months after he became Chancellor in the most invidious of circumstances.

His calm authority, and willingness to tear up Tory economic orthodoxy by borrowing heavily, has helped to lessen the impact of the Covid-19 catastrophe.

As the Chancellor told MPs: “We will not be defined by this crisis but by our response to it.” They are words that equally apply to the Labour front bench.

For, while Sir Keir Starmer’s more forensic approach at Prime Minister’s Questions invariably rattles Boris Johnson, the former Director of Public Prosecution’s modus operandi is not followed by his Treasury team.

And this was clear when Anneliese Dodds, the Shadow Chancellor, responded to Mr Sunak

– her speech lacked the direction and detail expected of an aspiring guardian of the nation’s finances.

It had, with respect, the hallmarks of a social policy ideologue, which Ms Dodds is, rather than the prescience of an economist and scholar such as Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, who worked for the Bank of England, and British Embassy in Washington, before becoming MP for Leeds West in 2010.

Even at this early stage of Sir Keir’s leadership, his Treasury team needs to be far more adroit with their scrutiny of Ministers – and Mr Sunak would expect nothing less.

They also can’t keep demanding more of the Government, and Mr Sunak in particular, without beginning to outline how they intend to fund their even more generous proposals.

And this matters because it is the issue of economic competence – more so than Brexit – that will define politics for the duration of this Parliament and beyond as the country deals with the aftermath of a financial crisis like no other.