‘This Iron Chancellor is talking like another Labour Iron Chancellor, Gordon Brown, who was forever renewing the country after years of Tory neglect,’ writes Kevin Maguire
Bulldozer Chancellor Rachel Reeves will need a hard hat to build, baby, build.
Her turbocharged drive for growth may boost the economy but that will be at the expense of the environment.
Hundreds of bushfires will be lit around the country by local opponents of a concrete national plan, London Mayor Sadiq Khan immediately signallying he’ll fight hard to bring down Heathrow expansion.
The vision also feels SouthERN heavy, pouring fuel on an already overheated corner of Britain at the expense of England’s North and Midlands.
And where there is to be public investment in the North, such as around Old Trafford, questions need to be asked about why precious public funds might featherbed multi-billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, manchester -united-fc>Manchester United’s part-owner, when he backed Brexit and collected a Tory knighthood before fleeing to tax haven Monaco.
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But Reeves undoubtedly is now a Chancellor with a fresh mission, a transformative agenda to upgrade Britain’s infrastructure. Comparisons with Thatcher, Boris Johnson ’s Boosterism or Donald Trump ’s unhinged upbeatness miss the real inspiration.
This Iron Chancellor is talking like another Labour Iron Chancellor, Gordon Brown, who was forever renewing the country after years of Tory neglect.
To reviving the NHS, filling the Tory blackhole and avoiding recession is added a fourth target for Rach the Builder. Yes she can? We’ll know soon enough. Once she posed as a putative Green Chancellor. In the Treasury there’ll be mud on her boots.