Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer are losing their grip as rebels sharpen the knives

Evening Standard

a day ago

It is not fun being the one person who has to learn to count in a government flailing to meet its pledges not to raise core taxes — and with a party (and increasingly, colleagues) which has never loved fiscal restraint. Half of Reeves's £10 billion fiscal headroom to stick to her targets would disappear if the softenings Starmer proposes were fully reversed. Rises in NHS spending — a major plank of the Government's plan to show real-world impact — are a done deal, which is why Wes Streeting, the cocksure Health Secretary, has a spring in his step. But even the fortunate in this unhappy house of government is a step away from someone else's frustration. Streeting's partner Joe Dancey, installed as the Labour Party's main communications chief, has had a torrid few months of accusations that the party brand has become 'soggy' (as one internal critic puts it).