The Chancellor is love-bombing traditional Labour heartlands to stop Reform UK delivering the type of demolition job the party suffered in Scotland when voters embraced the SNP.
Labour knows it cannot allow voters in once rock-solid seats to feel taken for granted. The Government suffered a PR-nightmare at the start of the year when it announced a raft of pro-growth policies which looked centred on the South.
Its support for a third runway at Heathrow, the Oxford-Cambridge “growth corridor” and the Lower Thames Crossing did little to suggest ending the North-South divide – or, as Boris Johnson would put it, “levelling-up” – is a top priority for this Labour administration.
The Chancellor has now seized the chance to assure communities far from London they are on her radar, trumpeting her support for transport schemes across the North and Midlands as part of a £15.6billion funding package.
Ms Reeves understands she must be seen as something other than Slasher-in-Chief as next week’s spending review races closer. Her opponents will accuse her of implementing Tory-style austerity that could have been avoided if she had not stamped on growth with her shock Budget which hiked up taxes on employers.
Labour is dismayed Reform UK is in first place in the polls and Sir Keir Starmer has tried to brand Nigel Farage as “Liz Truss 2.0”. He knows Labour’s electoral survival hinges on nailing down voters’ trust on the economy – and it is essential his Chancellor commands the respect of the country.
But if she is seen to take the axe to the Home Office in the spending review – right at the moment Reform is reaching out to voters worried about illegal immigration and the breakdown of law and order – Labour risks sinking even further in the polls.
The nation’s country’s most senior police chiefs have warned “negotiations between the Home Office and the Treasury are going poorly”. They say cuts would mean “stark choices about which crimes we no longer prioritise”.
Ms Reeves insists the Government will be “increasing spending on police” in the spending review.
But if the message voters get from this landmark moment is police won’t turn up to crimes, voters will conclude Britain is broken under Labour. And then they will look for an alternative party of Government.
