Are Rachel Reeves’s efforts to win business confidence ‘fiddling while Rome burns’?
Share:
Pro-growth charm offensive aimed at getting Labour back on the front foot has drawn concerns and questions. Roughing up industry regulators, jetting to Davos to court the global elite, and preparing to greenlight airport expansion: after a difficult start to the year, Rachel Reeves is working overtime to regain business confidence.
![[Rachel Reeves speaks to an interviewer: she wears a dark green suit, cream blouse and black high heels, and is gesticulating with one hand as she sits in a white armchair]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b606565ef9fe0e5e1c7625020d93699a705ff389/578_964_6299_3779/master/6299.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Financial market turbulence at the start of the year has been followed by a pro-growth charm offensive aimed at getting Labour back on the front foot, before the chancellor goes further in a speech she is expected to give next week. For a party of the centre-left, however, the efforts to regain the confidence of business leaders sit uncomfortably for some, and have drawn warnings from union leaders, charities, consumer groups and environmental campaigners.
![[Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves walk to a meeting in Davos: they are striding down a snowy pavement with a conference hall, trees and a mountain in the background. Starmer wears a suit an black anorak and is clutching a folder of documents and Reeves is wearing a thick, padded dark red coat and snow boots. ]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/79c2ce03c60087e1d3a458c3ce7644ee5d1a4b7e/241_690_5230_3138/master/5230.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The chancellor’s suggestion to the super-rich gathered at the World Economic Forum that she could water down planned changes to the non-dom tax regime, in particular, has set alarm bells ringing on Labour’s left flank. “It is of deep concern that the UK chancellor is making concessions to the super-rich at Davos, while the appeals of those struggling to afford the essentials back home are being ignored,” said Anna Marriott, the inequality policy lead at Oxfam.
Some economists are questioning whether ordering watchdog bosses to “tear down regulatory barriers”, without making significant changes to regulations, would even deliver the economic growth the chancellor wants to prioritise. “She’s fiddling while Rome burns,” said David Blanchflower, a former Bank of England policymaker. “She looks like a deer in the headlights, lacking a coherent plan. She sounds like a Tory chancellor. Where is the alternative?”.
