Why Rachel Reeves is channelling her inner Maggie Thatcher to win votes
As the shadow chancellor delivers a big speech claiming Thatcher’s mantle, John Rentoul reveals why she and Keir Starmer are so obsessed with the Iron Lady
Rachel Reeves avoided anything as crude as making a direct comparison, but the advance publicity for her Mais lecture (the landmark political speech for chancellors) included a passage that began with the words, “As we did at the end of the 1970s, we stand at an inflection point…”
In other words, I am the new Iron Lady and I will save the failing British economy from the malaise of the past decade or more. She rejects “managed decline” and pledges to “fashion a new economic settlement” to restore growth and prosperity.
The Conservative press could read the code. She was rewarded with the front-page lead story in The Daily Telegraph this morning: “Reeves: Britain faces 1979 moment.” And a prominent story in The Times: “Rachel Reeves channels Margaret Thatcher in City of London speech.”
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