Although, on reflection, that might be a little hard on Rachel Reeves. At least Rachel had given the job some thought before she got it. She had had some experience working at the Bank of England and, whether you liked it or not, she had some kind of plan.
No one can remember him ever having given the economy much thought until Andy Burnham offered the job. He was more the strong and silent type. As defence secretary, Healey had looked like a man of principle.
A defender of the armed forces, a guardian of the realm. He had even resigned over Keir Starmer and Reeves’s refusal to guarantee increasing the defence budget to 3% of GDP by 2030. Now that he’s in charge of the purse strings, he’s remained silent.
It feels as if he doesn’t know what he thinks. Or if he even thinks at all. Almost as if, were he to spend too much time in deliberation, he might have to resign all over again.
He doesn’t even come across as a career opportunist. A well-trodden route for cabinet ministers over the years. Instead, he’s just a rabbit caught in the headlights.
There again, for your first major speech as chancellor, you’d probably prefer it if the cost of government borrowing wasn’t at a record high since the financial crash and that Jaguar Land Rover hadn’t chosen that morning to announce 4,000 redundancies. On the plus side, Healey could be guaranteed everyone’s attention. The trickier question to answer was whether he would want it.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
