Rachel Reeves: I’m more optimistic than ever of Labour winning the next election
Exclusive: Shadow chancellor credited Sir Keir Starmer's war on antisemitism with bringing the party 'back to the mainstream', after campaigning with Jewish Labour activists
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has told Jewish News she is “more optimistic now than in any of the years I’ve been an MP” of Labour winning the next general election – and has credited Sir Keir Starmer’s war on antisemitism with helping bring the party “back into the mainstream”.
The Labour frontbencher, the MP for Leeds West since 2010, also insisted the record number of expulsions and suspensions of members for disciplinary offences, had been “good” for the party – and said she had “paid close attention” to the issue as “you don’t have to be Jewish to be offended by antisemitism.”
Outlining a stream of economic policies that she believed now made Labour a credible electoral force, Reeves said the “best thing” she had witnessed over recent weeks was “seeing the sense of pride” return to Jewish and non-Jewish activists in campaigning for the party in areas like Barnet, Harrow and in Bury, in north west England, ahead the local council elections in May.
Meeting the 42 year-old politician after a morning in which she has been out knocking doors with local members in Harrow, north west London, and at the end of another disastrous week in Westminster for Boris Johnson as a result of his response to the continued Downing Street partygate revelations, it is perhaps little surprise that there is a clear spring in her step.
With the opinion polls showing Starmer’s party comfortably ahead, the Tory Party indecisive on whether to replace Johnson, and a post-pandemic cost of living crisis impacting on the entire country, these are times you would expect the main Opposition party to be making a serious impact.
But suggest that overturning an 80 seat majority at the next general election is still too great a task for Labour to achieve, and Reeves, a former Bank of England economist, is quick to disagree.
“Absolutely we can,” she insists. “I feel more optimistic now than in any of the years I’ve been an MP.
“Partly because of the direction Boris Johnson is taking the Conservative Party – but also because Labour is now setting out an optimistic vision for the future of the country.
“Labour has only really won on three occasions – in 1945, 1964 and 1997, partly because these previous governments were running out of ideas, but also because Labour had an optimistic vision for the future. I think Keir is doing that today as well.”
A long-time vice-chair of the Labour Friends of Israel group, Reeves stresses how important Starmer’s pledge, once he became leader, to remove the stain of antisemitism from the party, has been in turning around Labour fortunes.
“You don’t have to be Jewish to be offended by antisemitism,” she says.
I feel more optimistic now than in any of the years I’ve been an MP
“I have a very small number of Jewish people in my constituency. It was non-Jewish people who said to me and others ‘I don’t like this antisemitism’.
“It came up in places you don’t expect to see. It was a stain on the party, and obviously incredibly damaging to our relations with the Jewish community. ”
Last month Labour released figures which showed that since Starmer became leader nearly 900 Labour members had been expelled from the party for offences including antisemitism. Hundreds more had been suspended and tellingly around 150, 000 activists had left the party most had joined under previous leader Jeremy Corbyn.
But Reeves, who first joined the party 26 year ago, is not overly concerned by this exodus rate.
She says: “I love Labour and I love our members – we would never have won any elections, councils or general elections without our members.
“But our members have got to share our values as a party. We have just had the biggest number of expulsions over the last year – and that’s good.
“There is no home in the Labour Party for people who don’t share our values. And antisemitism goes against everything the Labour Party stands for. Proscribing organisations that don’t share our values is also very important.”
In May, local elections across the country will not only give voters a chance to offer their verdict on their local political representatives, but in councils with large Jewish constituencies, most notably in Barnet, it will give the community the chance to offer a clear sign of how impressed they are with Starmer’s efforts to kick the antisemites out.
In Harrow today, Bury the previous week, and prior to that in Barnet, it is clear that Labour’s election strategists view Reeves as a valuable asset in their battle to win both the Jewish and wider vote in these councils.
A regular in Ed Miliband’s shadow cabinet, (the pair remain good friends, she says), Reeves pointedly resigned from the Labour front bench under Corbyn and in her own words “stood back.”
Meet Reeves in person, and it is clear to see she has a familiarity and knowledge of the Jewish community missing in some politicians across all political parties.
Her close friend, for over 20 years now, is Ruth Smeeth, the former Stoke MP, and tireless campaigner against antisemitism under Corbyn.
Smeeth told Jewish News that with Reeves: “What you get is what you see — there is no side to her.
“She is one of the brightest people I have ever met, she is determined to do the right thing and is hungry to change the country so that life is just a bit easier for everyone whether they live in Hampstead or Hanley.”
She speaks admiringly about the work of charities such as the Leeds Jewish Housing Association and the Leeds Jewish Welfare Board in the city, noting they continue to work with the council “some of the most vulnerable people across society”.
Reeves also praises the work across the country carried out by the Community Security Trust (CST) across the country saying “sadly in many ways, their work is needed more than ever protecting Jewish schools and synagogues – a Labour government would absolutely support the fantastic work that they do.”
A church-going Christian herself, Reeves adds: “All religions have this strong ethos about giving something back. That is something that is so strong in the Jewish community. A Labour government and Labour councils want to work with all organisations doing good in the community, sometimes protecting and supporting our most vulnerable.”
You don’t have to be Jewish to be offended by antisemitism
But on a recent campaigning visit to Barnet, Reeves used her time to speak with local businesses, some run by members of the community, attempting to convince locals that Labour’s plans to help with business rates and to combat the current cost of living crisis do provide a viable alternative to those of the government.
Labour election strategists are secretly hopeful – but determined not to sound too over confident – of even winning Barnet Council in May, something not achieved by the party in 30 years.
She says the party’s recent problem with antisemitism “didn’t crop up this time ” as she wondered the streets of Whetstone, Totteridge and Finchley with the Barnet activists.
“That’s not to say it still doesn’t crop up,” Reeves admits. “There is still work to be done.”
For her lunchtime break while campaigning in Barnet, Reeves is pictured drinking chicken soup with Jewish Labour council candidate Liron Velleman, and Childs Hill councillor Anne Clarke, amongst others.
It almost feels like a genuine break for food, rather than a public relations exercise, although it is of course both.
“The chicken soup was lovely, and I took some smoked salmon home with me,” Reeves says, with a smile on her face.
But the “best thing” she adds, after walking the streets of Whetstone, Totteridge and Finchley with the Barnet activists, was seeing their “sense of pride again at knocking on doors and campaigning for the Labour Party.”
Reeves continues: “That pride had been knocked out of them actually over the last few years when they were knocking doors and people told people weren’t voting Labour because it was an antisemitic party and that these people were very unhappy about the direction of the party.
“There’s more work to be done absolutely. But the survey done by the Jewish Labour Movement about the direction Keir Starmer is taking the party in. It was really encouraging to see the results.
” For someone like me who has played a close attention to trying to get Labour back into the mainstream and to root antisemitism out, it is really encouraging to see.”
Growing up in Lewisham and going to school in Bromley, Reeves says she didn’t really come into contact with anyone from the community until she took her first Saturday job, where her boss was Jewish.
She excelled at school, then studied at Oxford University and the London School of Economics, before working as an economist at the Bank of England, the British Embassy in Washington DC and HBOS.
Her interest in Israel developed, she says, out of the hope that were the 1993 Oslo Accords that threatened briefly to bring an end to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
The region’s track record of providing heartache and disappointment was, Reeves admits, brought home to her by the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin two year later.
Five years before she became an MP, Reeves had joined Labour Friends of Israel both to “make a contribution and to learn” says Reeves, who has visited the Jewish state on four occasions now, including a moving day spend at Yad Vashem with the Holocaust Education Trust.
At Yad Vashem earlier this year with @michaeldughermp @vernon_coakermp @spellar #HMD2014 we must not forget. pic.twitter.com/w5ZZTZ0K8L
— Rachel Reeves (@RachelReevesMP) January 27, 2014
“I just firmly believe you need to have a safe, secure Israel,” she says, “and a viable Palestinian state.” Reeves says the current state of affairs means “we don’t have either.”
But she talks enthusiastically about the new Israeli government’s improved relations with many Arab and Gulf States.
“LFI very explicitly believes in a two-state solution, and I feel that very strongly as well,” adds Reeves. “I don’t support more settlements, I think they go against the objectives of peace.”
In her shadow chancellor’s role Reeves is determined to restore economic credibility to the party, and is fully aware that Corbyn-style fantasy policies with the country’s finances were another big factor in Labour’s loss of support within the Jewish community of this country.
But she has no time for those who continue to insist a Labour government will leave the country’s finances in ruins.
“When Labour left (in May 2010) debt as a share of our economy was 60 per cent,” she reasons. “It’s 100 per cent now. Under the Tories we have also lost our triple A rating.
“I’m more than happy to take it to the Tories when it comes to the economy because I know we can win.
“My background is in banking and financial services. I worked at the Bank of England for the best part of a decade. I understand the importance of fiscal responsibility, of public finances. And unlike the Tories I treat tax payers money with respect.”
Reeves says under her watch a Labour government would want “to keep taxes low” but she argues “you have to do that by growing the economy and by treating taxpayers’ money with respect.”
While her party backed the government’s furlough scheme roll-out during the pandemic Reeves is heavily critical of the governance around handing out the money, pointing to recent revelations about fraudulent claims amounting to £3.3 billion.
She also points the finger of blame at the government for increases in taxation – and the worrying figures around economic growth.
“The only way to keep taxes low is to have an economy that is growing, because then you have the proceeds of growth to invest in public services,” she says.
“What the Tories are doing, to give money to things like the National Health Service – because there’s no growth they have to whack up taxes.”
Jewish News has spoken with former Labour donors within the community who are considering returning to Labour – some who left under Ed Miliband’s leadership.
For someone like me who has played a close attention to trying to get Labour back into the mainstream and to root antisemitism out, it is really encouraging to see
Asked what her message would be to these individuals, Reeves says: “Labour has always been a pro-worker party, it’s in our DNA, that’s how we were formed, but we are also a pro-business party.
“Look at the Labour Party, we have changed. But so have the Conservative Party. When Boris Johnson said ‘F…k business’ – I thought it was a throwaway remark, but it turns out to be the organisation principal of Boris Johnson’s government. It’s what he said at a CBI conference.
“Compare that to Keir, who put a lot of time into his speech, and I should know because I worked with him on it, he wants to build strong relations with the business community.
“That doesn’t mean we are going to agree on everything, but treat business with respect. Nothing we want to do in government can be done without working with business. We have to have a partnership approach with business. It comes back to the issue of respect again.”
And what of Reeves’ own political ambitions? Does she dream of maybe one day replacing Starmer as leader of Labour?
“I can honestly say, I just want to be chancellor,” she replies. “That’s my dream job. It really is.
“I would love the idea of standing outside Number 11, with my red box on budget day. That will be my dream come true! “
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