There were no civil servants present when ministers gathered for their weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday. The reason? It was time to talk politics. On the eve of Labour’s first Budget for 14 years, Keir Starmer tried to rally his ministers around a common message: blame the Tories! He spoke of the so-called fiscal black hole bequeathed to Labour before he handed things over to his Chancellor to explain why difficult decisions were required on spending, tax and welfare.
Plenty of Labour MPs and aides question the wisdom of an election campaign which has boxed them in
For all the attempts to unite against a common enemy, just a glance around the cabinet table was a reminder of the unease about the decisions taken this week. Ministers such as Angela Rayner, Louise Haigh, Steve Reed and Shabana Mahmood have already expressed their objections to real-term departmental cuts.
Reeves sat opposite Starmer at the end of the table.
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