Rachel Reeves Breaks Silence at Harvard, Claims Credit for Burnham Agenda

By Daniel Okafor

Rachel Reeves will use a Harvard speech on Monday to declare that Brexit did "deep damage" and that the UK should one day return to the EU. It is her first public intervention on her own record since leaving government, and it lands directly on the agenda of Andy Burnham's government.

The speech was timed for after John Healey's first budget. Reeves wanted that delay. It lets her speak now that her ideas have become the government's programme.

What will Reeves say about Brexit?

The former chancellor will say no one in government could "be in any doubt" about her view on the damage of Brexit. She believes the UK should eventually rejoin the EU fold. "Economic interests, common values and basic geographical reality all point towards Europe," Reeves will say.

The address examines how governments can satisfy the public's appetite for radicalism while keeping credibility with financial markets. Her argument: pursuing a closer EU relationship, even rejoining, can be both credible and radical at once.

"Economically, it is the credible choice. Britain's values, and a serious assessment of the geopolitical scene today, tell us it is the radical choice too," she will say. She gives Burnham "credit for his willingness to face reality head on".

The line matters because the Treasury, where the Remain campaign's "Project Fear" blueprints were drawn up, has always been the heart of pro-European sentiment in government. Reeves was its biggest champion under Keir Starmer. Her position now sits closer to Burnham, who cast her out of government, than to Healey, her successor.

Healey has joked about his own age when asked whether the UK would rejoin the EU "in his lifetime". He says his job is to "try and make the most of Britain's position now".

How did Reeves shape Burnham's agenda?

The themes of her lecture, delivered six months ago, have become the Burnham government's working plan. In that lecture she argued: "Today, what most distinguishes Britain from our closest peers is the relative underperformance of our major cities outside London, compared to their European counterparts."

The MP for Leeds West and Pudsey said the north of England had "waited for far too long, for a government that matches warm words with concerted ambition". Her call to "liberate our regions from stifling Whitehall orthodoxies" sounds strikingly Burnhamesque.

The main policy in that speech was a plan to give regional leaders a share of national taxes "which have, for too long, been allocated by central government". That work now forms the centrepiece of Healey's budget.

If this government has a theory of growth, it is Brexit repair and devolution. It is awkward, at best, that it removed the key backer of both under Starmer.

Where does the £100bn fit in?

Reeves's other theory of growth was investment. She raised employers' national insurance to fund it. Those tax rises were unpopular, but they signalled a government willing to make hard choices while borrowing for public investment. The fiscal rules were changed to allow a multi-year commitment to an eventual £100bn in new capital spending.

That cash is now flowing into NHS infrastructure, roads, housing, rail upgrades and energy and industrial investments. Burnham's government has Reeves to thank for it. She has received no credit.

In her Harvard speech, Reeves will argue the shift to an investment-led growth model "required sacrifices" that a Starmer-led government failed to get the public to back. "The challenge is to make the politics and economics, those dual tests of credibility and radicalism, line up," she will say.

Is Westminster reassessing Reeves?

Some MPs now whisper that they judged Reeves's legacy and influence too harshly. At Healey's first outing at the International Monetary Fund in Bangkok, IMF economists lavished praise on his predecessor. They said the UK's deficit reduction plan "stands out" among G7 peers.

Reeves will not say, although others have, that much of the problem with Starmer's government was the man himself rather than the agenda. Burnham, if he avoids an early election, may start to see the investment bear fruit in public and market confidence, in upgraded public services and in Britain's appeal for private investment.

Much could still derail it, not least further international turmoil. But when Burnham's government counts its success on public services, Europe, devolution and growth, Reeves will be able to claim some of the credit.