John Healey with no hint of humour is critical of his legacy. He knows there is a £4.7 bn plus black hole in the accounts. He should know as it was his insistence on higher defence spending with no offsets to pay for it which caused it, whilst still leaving the defence budget short of where he said it needed to be.
Rachel Reeves inherited 2% on target inflation. She left with it standing at 2.9%, a 45 % increase in the rate. Her tax rises and cost increases for the public sector caused some of the problems.
Rachel Reeves inherited 4.2% unemployment, and put it up to 4.9%. Her National insurance rise, Business rates rises, Minimum wage rise all added to the pressures on firms who have had to shed labour.
She boosted public spending by £145 bn more than the Conservatives were planning for 2027-8, which many on her side will see as good news. The problem is they do not think it was enough and much of it was wasted. Runaway bills for benefits, a failure to stop illegal migration, the give away of the Chagos and the costs of Starmer travels abroad all added to the bills without adding to our standard of living.
She planned an additional £97 bn borrowing for 2027-8 compared to Conservative plans. This has helped drive up interest rates, greatly adding to public spending as it becomes dearer to service the rising debts of the state.
She inherited a ten year borrowing rate around 4% and pushed it up to over 5% by her overspending and overborrowing, a 25% increase in costs.
She was part of a government offering 300,000 new homes a year average for five years. With her higher interest rates she did not even manage 200,000 a year.
September 23, 2026
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has made driving economic growth her number-one priority, using an active “secureomics” supply-side model focused on public-private partnership and structural reform. WHATEVER THAT MEANS.
In reality she just did a growth, growth, growth rain dance yet everything she and Labour did was hugely anti-growth, ever more taxes, ever more red tape, rip off net zero lunacy, the workers rights act, non dom lunacy, tenants rights act… and ever more people on benefits while the wealthy and hard working often leave the country. A insane doom loop agenda.
Even had she wanted to do sensible things the Labour MPs would never have allowed her too. Her big mistake was joining the Labour Party at 16.
Reeves recalls how, when she was eight years old, her father, Graham, pointed out the then Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock on the television and “told us that was who we voted for”. Reeves says she and her sister have “both known we were Labour since then”. Was this perhaps a form of child abuse? In the same way many other mad and often evil religions are propagated?
She has decent A levels in sound subjects though she did read PPE but surely even now she could break free of her deluded economic views.
Reply Proof my point that people are not determined by 3 years study at University.
September 23, 2026
“ Reply Proof my point that people are not determined by 3 years study at University.”
More a case of flogging a dead horse if you are expecting to convince our prolific contributor with a science degree.
September 23, 2026
reply to reply …..although for many their idealistic, lefty attitudes are sharpened by the partying, rule-less living and hedonism. The problems in life become seen as what others cause, a non-contributory outlook.
September 23, 2026
@Lifelogic – removing money from the economy, into her grasp, as much as she wanted to believe didn’t grow the economy it killed it.
September 23, 2026
“Chagos deal is not good enough, admits Streeting” rather an under statement.
KIER & Lammy’s bonkers “deal” was always totally insane. Let us hope Trump’s regime has now killed it dead.
DOES Wes Streeting still think Lucy Letby supporters should shut up? This so as not to upset relatives of her alleged victims? Surely these relative want the truth and not just a scapegoat?
September 23, 2026
The problem is John, Government set the rules for others to follow, but they ignor all the rules themselves.
Most of us out here have to live within our means by either working harder, longer, or smarter, and at the same time curbing our expenditure on non essentials where you can, and purchasing more sensibly where it is more difficult.
Our problem is that much of our own expenditure is Government controlled., like Council tax (which in effect is a wealth tax as it bears no relationship on services used) energy costs, and ever increasing taxation on a whole range of goods, services, products, and even investments, thus our so called disposable income has been cut, because our own overheads have increased way above inflation, so is it any wonder that the economy is not growing as it should !
You cannot spend money you do not have, and perhaps Government should learn that lesson fast.
September 23, 2026
@Berkshire Alan – as you suggest the bulk of the country runs a ‘Budget’ the Government and Parliament have time and time again have proven they don’t even know what a budget is or what it means.
September 23, 2026
Reeves is not daft she got four grade As at A-level, in mathematics, further mathematics, economics and politics and this while at a Comp. So not even the excuse of vacuity like John Major. Then she read philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford and a master’s degree in economics at the London School of Economics (LSE), graduating with a merit.
Yet still it seems she still has zero grasp of real economics, human nature, business, what works or economic realities. Perhaps a refund is due for her fees? Like so many she was just educated into stupidity it seems? We see this with the many climate alarmist scientists too or Denis Healey with his double first in Greats yet he thought 98% income tax rates was a good plan before his IMF rescue fiasco.
September 23, 2026
The problem for Reeves, as was for TTK and now Burnham, is their Backbenchers’. We need cuts to public spending which will hurt Labour voters most. You do not need a string of A-Levels to know what that means.
September 23, 2026
I would urge any parent to persuade their offspring not to study politics – look what it has produced! with Rachel from Complaints.
September 23, 2026
Academic intelligence is a good judge of the world of theory but not of reality. It’s like a computer that is not able to touch or feel the physical world and reality.
So there’s such a thing as practical intelligence as well (which some academic people have – and others, the opposite). Practical intelligence is based on intuition, creativity – things like that.
Unless you’re becoming a doctor, engineer or scientist, you don’t really need to study anything. Except how to read and write (which you mostly learn on your earn, reading books). A bit of maths (but not too much). And how to think logically (a few hours is enough). Much more useful would be to start work at 16 years old. And do a bit of travelling around the world that really sharpens up the mind and imagination.
September 23, 2026
You accuse Rachel Reeves of a ’45 % increase’ in the rate of inflation. Perhaps you should have been a stats teacher.
Reply Glad you for once agree with what I wrote. She put the unemployment rate up by 16.6% as well.
September 23, 2026
Rather makes his point!!
September 23, 2026
Stats and probability are things that very many people fail to grasp. About 50% of people even buy lottery tickets and the two cot death trial “expert” witness odds. The woman was found guilty. Eventually it was over turned after serval years but the odds claim in court was instantly obviously bogus to anyone with even a basic grasp of odds. Yet the lawyers, judges, the accused (a lawyer), journalists and jury all swallowed it initially.
September 23, 2026
😂🤣
September 23, 2026
And of course like so many others in politics that have done untold damage to this nation and its people, (not just financially, as a nation is more than just a balance sheet) she’ll wander off into the sunset unharmed.
Whoops, sorry, oh well never mind, just doesn’t cut it, there should be consequences for such sheer incompetence, and deliberate harm.
I say deliberate as opposed to genuine error or factors beyond a Ministers control, because it is ideology that has played a huge part in our deep descent into the mess we are in.
I was sick to death of hearing about how she was the first woman Chancellor, which is probably the main reason she was given the job in the first place. One of the Labour ‘wimmin’ with some basic accountancy knowledge, wheeled into position to showcase Equality.
Diversity/Equality etc. has done as much damage as Reeves and her calculator, and we’ve yet to see the real cost of it all, again in more ways than just finances.
September 23, 2026
to be fair to RR she is the product of a failed education and political candidate selection process. the kinds of people we actually need are screened out.
to be even more fair the results are little to do with the Chancellor, and more to do with the civil servants, bank of England, and their subcontracters.
any Chancellor making the radical changes the country actually needs, if by some fluke a decent one got through the rubbish selection process, would get the liz truss treatment from the blob.
I dont see voting changing this.
September 23, 2026
The department of energy has it seems seven ministers or junior ministers and not one has a relevant degree to energy. Emma Pinchbeck Chief Executive Officer of the UK’s Climate Change Committee read Classics. She took over from Chris Stark with some sort of law degree I understand.
Is it any wonder we have such insane and damaging energy policies?
September 23, 2026
To be fair Lawson would not have given way to the Civil Service, nor Tebbit, nor Parkinson nor Redwood etc.
If you can’t direct the Civil Service and LEAD your department you have no business occupying that place,
September 23, 2026
Good morning.
Her legacy is that she was the first woman Chancellor of the Exchequer. That’s it !
Apart from the disastrous budgets and her dealings in the property market, I shall remember her as the woman who put a picture of, ‘Red’ Ellen Wilkinson. Wilkinson was a revolutionary Communist and a member of the Fabian Society. It told me all I wanted to know about this MP.
September 23, 2026
Clearly Rachel Reeves made a number of serious economic misjudgments but the responsibility for her appointment rests squarely on the shoulders of Keir Starmer. He decided to appoint her, he supported her economic policies and he refused to replace her when it was clear her first budget was a disaster. He lauded her as the first Labour female chancellor openly stating she will be chancellor for ten years. Whatever Starmer motivations it is obvious retaining Reeves as chancellor led to his own demise. Making good appointments requires careful consideration and should not by influenced by factors such as gender and DEI. We see this clearly in policing and other public service professions and always it’s the people of this country who pay the price.
September 23, 2026
Simply, spend, spend, spend – that’s how you win elections?
If is much time was spent on finding ways for the Country and its People to earn, create a thriving resilient economy as they do on ways to tax and spend, things would be in a better place.
It was brought up in the media yesterday about the extra snooping staff needed to deliver on the ‘Manson Tax’ yet in the same breath the ‘left’ was saying the £2million envisaged needs to come down to £1.5million as the tax ‘can’t’ as punish enough people.
The whole Parliament is headless unable to think, unable to understand their job. The indoctrination is it is just about the tax, how to contrive more of it. Not one thought goes into an economy, an economy to fund the tax
September 23, 2026
There is a very clear website called visual capitalist which shows how countries compare for interest spending and rates. The UK is only exceeded in net spending by the US and Italy. The US pays over 10%. We are lucky the rate isn’t higher. We’re doomed.
September 23, 2026
@Stred – the big, big difference others with large debts all have earnings, the type of money cominging into pay there debts. The UK works on banning earnings just borrow to pay debts.
As an aside the same stats producer shows the UK as the 2nd highest owner of US debt
September 23, 2026
I don’t blame her for being hamstrung by Labour backbenches who won’t wear cuts to spending, but she should have resigned rather than cling on to her elevated position.
I do blame her for introducing the farmer’s tax and delivering misery for many in the farming community. I do blame her for introducing VAT on school fees out of spite for those who aspire.
September 23, 2026
Defence spending needs to increase quickly in order to either deter or withstand a likely assault by Russia. The greater our evident military capability the less likely the assault. Taking weeks to find a serviceable warship or cancelling army training on Salisbury Plain is just wrong, and sends the wrong message to potential adversaries.
September 23, 2026
These headline numbers fail to tell the whole story but they do show just how much labour is constrained by their own ideology and MUST-DO’s.
They must bribe those they see as their customers – forget the voting system for a moment, this is about rewarding their own kind with increases and better conditions. Even in this they fail miserably, deepening the pain for those at the bottom of society.
Without the poor and under-educated labour would have little purpose left, except to wreck the economy and destroy anything they class as elitism.
The eradication of the labour party, so richly deserved, can easily be achieved by getting rid of the necessity for people to live ignorant lives in slums. The route out is through a massive increase in ‘real’ education – not the indoctrination labour pushes down the throats of the young.
September 23, 2026
If someone damages a shop window, they are liable to pay the cost to compensate for what they have done.
Rachel Reeves’ actions have caused much higher damage to so many businesses and the cost is shrugged off to incompetence.
September 23, 2026
A majority of MPs, the Civil Service, academia and the judiciary will consider that Rachel Reeves has performed well as socialism depends upon making and keeping people poor as evidenced by no socialist government ever leaving the country better off after a spell in power. In the past this was simply a matter of spending too much to bring the country to its financial knees. But now their ideology has been ramped up to include mass immigration coupled with the deliberate sabotaging of our energy and hence industry and these are both now designed to destroy our national security as well as our finances. The forced implementation of Net Zero, the Chagos “deal” with its £35bn dowry and the encouragement given to illegals to come over from France are all prime examples of how they wish to destroy our economy, social cohesion and national security.
September 23, 2026
In other words, Reeves was an incompetent idiot!
September 23, 2026
From the media
“I think he is a liar, a crazy person who says all this kind of thing to distract people’s attention and carry on putting the squeeze on people financially. Everything he said is completely made up in order to distract people.” said, Mr Robles, 64.
Mr Robels, we know the feeling, that’s the ‘majority’ of failing politicians for you, you are not alone
Ramón Robles, is the president of La Matanza War Veterans Centre, who served with the 4th Airborne Artillery Group during the Falklands war, told The Telegraph that he had no trust in Argentina’s president.
September 23, 2026
As if 14 years of the Conservatives wasn’t enough, the damage done by Theeves and Starmer has been catastrophic.
We are only going to see things get even worse with Burnham in charge.
Every Labour government in my lifetime has always crashed the economy and this one will leave the largest mess ever to by cleared up by a Reform-led government
September 23, 2026
‘The Treasury is hiring for someone to direct the UK’s growth strategy in a new unit looking at how to “boost growth and living standards through supply side reform.”‘
Being this Parliament it is a safe bet they are looking for a backdoor to justify increasing the number of illegals arriving by boat – their real and only area of growth
Britain may have to pay France nearly £1bn for next small boats deal. Why? then you get a clue the French say the UK bore “significant responsibility” for the current situation because it was so attractive to migrants.
September 23, 2026
Didn’t she / they say at the changeover that they had stabilised the economy and left us in a far better state since the point of their arrival in government, as we all rolled our eyes really wondering if they truly did believe that. Same as the then senior front bench member who told us and presumably truly believed that those Channel boats were coming over full of women and children. It seems clear from the PM’s recent comments he believes Russia is responsible for rise of the UK’s so-called Far Right whilst Mr D Milliband believes that ” Brexit has been exactly the daily anguish we feared ” and we need “an institutionalised relationship with the EU” He talks of travellers stuck at Berlin airport – presumably as an example – because we’re not part of the club. Myself & many others I believe have been travelling all over the place without problems mainly, though not into Berlin… Many more ‘beliefs’ being spouted, too many to mention and so the pile-on continues. I continue to believe that ‘they’ really and truly continue to believe us plebs to be idiots.
September 23, 2026
whatever the Conservative forward plans were is irrelevant.The earnest rationales offered and debated here cut
no mustard in Whitehall/Manchester.Burn’em is now in HIS comfort zone hobnobbing with the Great and
Good(Starmer with bells on).Labour/Greens/Libdims all like minded and to ensure our absorption by
Brussels he will call a GElection.Forget Liz Truss.The blame targets are everyone in office Cameron onwards.
This country today is tomorrow’s history primer dissertation.
September 23, 2026
150 illegals on the 21st and 154 yesterday the 22nd