Earlier this week I got a rare chance to interview Rachel Reeves. The Chancellor had agreed to speak exclusively with the Daily Express having just announced the details of her humiliating U-turn on Winter Fuel cuts.
It was a major victory for this newspaper, having campaigned tirelessly against the “cruel” policy ever since it was rushed through by the new Labour government last July. Ms Reeves refused to apologise for her actions – which swiped the £300 benefit from almost 10 million pensioners – instead insisting that the “economic stability” meant she was able to reverse the decision.
As we chatted on a bench in a tiny urban horticultural hub in north London I noticed a quote by the iconic British actress Audrey Hepburn in colourful paint on the wall next to the Chancellor.
It read: “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” The message is one of hope and optimism.
But the Chancellor crushed a lot of that sentiment when she delivered her Spring Statement just 48 hours after our sunny chat in Camden Town.
Ms Reeves repeatedly spoke of making “Labour choices”.
But it wasn’t the Labour that we were promised before the election, a Tory-light version.
Instead, she has reached for the party’s old comfort blanket of higher taxes, higher borrowing and higher spending.
Her massive £300 billion spending spree means she can point to shiny new infrastructure projects and talk the language of “renewal”.
It was a high-stakes gamble to win over working class voters that Labour is bleeding to Reform UK.
This is why she poured money into defence, the NHS and ending migrant hotels.
But voters won’t thank the Chancellor if their taxes go up even more in the autumn.
That looks more likely now as new figures show the economy shrunk last month.
Unemployment is at a four-year high, the cost of living is surging again and the country’s debt pile is getting bigger and bigger.
Ms Reeves needs to get planting that garden quickly because tomorrow is looking pretty bleak.
