Every year the Mais lecture, hosted by Bayes Business School, gives its speaker a chance to lay out their vision for the economy. It’s how we knew Rishi Sunak would prioritise fiscal prudence over tax cuts long before he entered Number 10. Last night it was Rachel Reeves’s turn.
The message seemed to be: build up the state to get it out of the way
As expected, there were no big policy announcements about what Labour might do in power. But that wasn’t the point of the speech. Reeves formally committed to keeping Jeremy Hunt’s fiscal rule, to get debt falling as a percentage of GDP in a rolling five-year forecast. This development would keep the spending reins tighter than many in her party would like, but on the flip side would allow her to potentially borrow more in other years, adding more to the national debt.
Reeves also clarified for her business audience exactly what her party means by ‘basic rights from day one’ for workers.
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