8 hours ago
Devil in the non-doms detail was Labour's biggest blunder
R achel Reeves scored a hat-trick at this week's Times CEO Summit. Not a triple round of applause, but her third appearance in a row. Thursday's was the first as chancellor rather than in opposition and flocks of chickens were circling, ready to come home to roost. At the start of the event I asked delegates about Reeves's promise the previous year that a Labour government would be the most business-friendly ever. Had deed followed word? No one raised their hand.
This was an audience ready not to be pleased, but in the end Reeves did well. She didn't duck difficult questions, defended her choices — in particular on last year's national insurance increase for employers, the biggest bugbear for those in the room — and stayed calm in the face of accurate and persistent questions from Mehreen Khan, economics editor of The Times.
