The Rachel Reeves Interview (Her Last As Chancellor?)
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hello, newscasters. It's Laura here. Yesterday, we played some parts of our conversation with the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who's been in charge at the Treasury for two years. But in the next week or so, she may no longer be there. We thought you might like to hear it all because she's been a huge figure in our politics and a huge figure in the economy for the last couple of years. And it was really interesting to hear her reflect on the two years that she has spent in what is her dream job. She was pretty unrepentant about the mistakes that many others believe she made. But see what you make of it. Here is our full conversation. Paddy and I will be back in a second with a regular newscast episode.
But in the meantime, here's Rachel Reeves in what is probably her last interview as the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Chancellor, I remember almost exactly two years ago, we sat in exactly the same room and you were fresh from that huge victory that you'd worked so hard for. And I think everybody watching could tell how much it meant to you to be here. But why do you think that just two years on, that government you've been part of has come to an end?
In the first two years, we have delivered change. We've delivered quite radical change in a number of areas, the number of kids we've lifted out of poverty, the infrastructure investment in energy and transport that's now going ahead and properly funded. We've been able to do that. Because as I kept saying during the general election campaign and since I've become chancellor, you have to build growth and change on that rock of stability and trust that I've managed to return to our economy. But people are impatient for change. I'm impatient for change. And I totally get that people want to see their lives changed faster. And that will be the job for Andy Burnham when he becomes a prime minister of our country in just over a week's time.
But he's becoming prime minister because of the majority that we secured. And I also know because of the work that I have done. Andy will take over an economy that is much stronger than the one that I inherited from the Conservatives just two years ago.
Inflation is expected to go up again. The Bank of England has warned that interest rates might have to go up again too. And that most fundamental measure of the economy in people's real lives, unemployment, that's been going up in the last year or so too. And some of the things you're leaving behind are going in the wrong direction.
I do not accept the premise of that at all. If you look at the economy compared to the one I inherited, we are in a much stronger position. So since I've become chancellor of the Exchequer, wages have risen faster than prices in every single month for 24 months. If you look at inflation, it reached double digits under the Conservatives. Inflation today is lower in the UK than it is in the Eurozone or in the US. But the most important measure, I think, is how quickly the economy is growing. And I think if someone had said to me or to you two years ago, do you think within two years you can be the fastest growing economy in the G7? And I think a lot of people would have said, well, good luck with that.
But actually, that is what the most recent data show. And there are more people in work than when I became chancellor.
Some of the most recent numbers on disposable income, what people have to spend, actually shows that disposable income has been going down.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:43
2
Why might this be Rachel Reeves's last interview as Chancellor?
4:43–10:27
3
How does Rachel Reeves justify Labour's economic record over two years?
10:27–18:30
4
What evidence does Reeves give for improvements in wages, inflation and growth?
18:30–23:24