Rachel Reeves speaking in Oxford (Image: Getty)
Rachel Reeves didn’t dare mention farmers during a speech about growth on Wednesday but they made sure there was no forgetting them – or her inheritance tax raid.
Dozens of furious farmers, with their tractors in tow, descended on the lawn of Siemens Healthineers in Oxford where the
I would know, she only uttered the word some 45 times.
Officials took care to make sure her speech was far enough into the MRI magnet factor that the gentle hum of machinery drowned out the thunderous – and rather jolly – hooting of horns outside.
The farmers had company in the form of activists Green New Deal Rising who chanted “No third runway” right as Ms Reeves waved her magic Treasury wand to grant the Heathrow strip Government approval.
For much of her over-40 minute monologue, the closest she got to addressing the much-expected announcement of Heathrow’s third runway was in passing mention of Airbus.
But that changed towards the end when she confirmed what many in the room knew was coming.
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“The Government supports a third runway,” Ms Reeves finally announced with five minutes to go before her speech ended.
But it’s likely that not everyone in the Government wants to see the plans take flight.
One Cabinet minister visibly absent from the front row of today’s proceedings was Energy Secretary Ed Miliband – who has insisted any airport expansions would need to be justified within the UK’s carbon budgets.
The only members from Sir ’s top team were Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander and Environment Secretary Steve Reed.
It seems the Cabinet split on the issue is following Reeves’s motto by growing – but that’s not quite the “growth” she was after.
Standing behind a plinth which said “kickstart economic growth”, one couldn’t help but think ‘only now?’
The Labour government has had six months to get the economy booming, and it’s done everything but that.
The UK economy shrunk for a second month in a row in December but that didn’t stop Ms Reeves from doing what Labour does best – U-turn.
Sir Keir and the Chancellor spent months talking down the economy with a doom and gloom narrative before unveiling a brutal tax-raising budget.
But the tune changed today.
With a sometimes disingenuous grin plastered on her face, Ms Reeves tried to channel ’s boosterism.
She beamed while insisting “low growth is not our destiny” and smiled when adding that Britain is “the best place in the world to invest”.
But at one point, a siren went off in the factory while Ms Reeves was speaking. The alarm bells already appear to be ringing.