How Britain learned to love Keir Starmer’s ‘boring, snoring’ right-hand woman

LONDON — She was once a Labour Party outcast, dismissed by Jeremy Corbyn as too right-wing and famously derided by a TV executive as “boring, snoring.”

But now Rachel Reeves is on course to be Britain’s first female chancellor, via a close partnership with leader Keir Starmer which shows no signs of cracking under pressure as the election looms.

Her relentlessly pro-business, pro-caution approach chimes with the “no drama Starmer” image that the Labour leader had cultivated — in contrast to the chaotic governing Tories.

Aides say the relationship between Labour’s two most powerful figures — leader and top finance minister — is almost irritatingly watertight. It stands in stark contrast to the famous No. 10 Downing St. / Treasury wars that blighted the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown years.

A person who has worked alongside both Starmer and Reeves, granted anonymity to frankly discuss the relationship, said there is a “depth of trust” greater than with previous pairings. Like opposition leaders and shadow chancellors before them, their offices are round the corner from each other on a corridor in Parliament’s Norman Shaw buildings.

“One of the institutional memories that runs deep in the Labour Party is what it looks like when No. 10 and No. 11 don’t work well together. Keir and Rachel obviously talk to those who can advise on that, like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown … or [ex Tory Chancellor] George Osborne and [former opposition finance chief] Ed Balls about what they’ve learned.

“They’re very, very cognizant that parts of reforming the British state won’t work if those two jobs are not utterly hand-in-glove.”

The same person said the perfect example of the close pairing is a video of Reeves shouting “for God’s sake!” after Starmer was ambushed with glitter by a protestor at Labour’s 2023 party conference. “If you want to understand their relationship just watch those 15 seconds,” the person said. “It’s a vulnerable moment — she’s almost outraged.”

Big on business

Business seems to love what Reeves is offering too. On Thursday, Reeves and Starmer will host 400 big name firms in central London, for the party’s biggest-ever business bash.

This week the Labour finance chief dropped plans to re-impose caps on bankers’ bonuses as she vowed to unlock the potential of the City of London. And she has been a consistent voice of caution on Labour’s plan to spend £28 billion a year on investment in green industries — riling the left of the party in the process as Labour tries to shut down a key Conservative attack line.

Somewhat surprisingly for a previously low key figure, Reeves — a former Bank of England economist — is also starting to cut through with the public.

New research from consultancy JL Partners, shared with POLITICO, finds that while voters say Starmer is predominantly “boring,” Reeves is regarded as “competent” and “intelligent,” even if she has lower name recognition.

“The fact that ‘competence’ is the biggest word there, I think she would be very happy with that, because one of the things they’ve been trying to do — and actually have, I think, so far successfully done — is neutralize worries about Labour’s handling of the economy,” says JL Partners director Scarlett Maguire. 

“I think competent is exactly what they’re going for, and that’s in stark contrast to how most of the public see the Conservatives, especially over the last two or three years.”

Economic woes

The economy has, in recent years, rarely been a Labour vote winner. 

The party was in power during the 2008 global financial crisis and turfed out of office soon after. Labour’s hard-left former leader Jeremy Corbyn was trusted on the economy by just 16 percent of voters by the time of the 2019 election, according to YouGov polling.

Fast forward five years, and separate research by Redfield and Wilton Strategies shows respondents now trust Labour on every single policy area — from the economy to immigration, to the war in Ukraine — more than the Conservatives.

And with the state of the economy consistently listed as voters’ top priority, the Reeves-Starmer dynamic could hardly be more key. 

But not everyone is impressed by what the duo is offering — and some on the left see a timidity that will come back to haunt the party.

James Schneider, Labour’s director of strategic communications under Corbyn, argued that the party under Reeves and Starmer “doesn’t have an economic policy.”

“Its economic policy is to do the same as what the Conservatives are currently doing, to stick with the status quo, but then just say the word ‘growth’ a bit. It is the most embarrassing area of policy.”

This, Schneider predicts, could be very bad for Labour’s long-term outlook.

“In politics, when you seem to be driving forward, everybody stays in line,” he says. “When you’re not driving forward, everybody’s at each other’s throats. You can see that in the Conservative party right now. That’s historically been the case with the Labour party as well.

“So you know, what one can predict is unhappy times to come, given that on current trends, and applying Labour’s publicly stated policies to trend outcomes, most people in the country will be less well off two years into Labour governments than they are at the beginning.”

Rachel Reeves is a former Bank of England economist | Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

He added: “That’s not because of changes Labour will have made in those few years backfiring — it’s because they have policies to do nothing.”

Tories are also already making hay with Reeves’ business-friendly decision to reject a clampdown on bankers’ bonuses despite long criticizing the Conservatives on exactly the same issue.

Tory MP Neil O’Brien described the move as “junk politics.” He added: “It’s the same on public spending — they have constantly attacked on everything and implied that there will be masses more spending on everything when they know it is all impossible.”

For now, Labour’s top team is laser-focused on winning this year’s election — even if a cautious approach fails to set pulses racing.

One former Labour adviser conceded that the partnership between Starmer and Reeves is “utterly bland,” but said that in itself could be seen as a strength after years of Conservative drama. “Part of [David] Cameron and Osborne’s strength was how boring their own relationship was compared to the beef between Blair and Brown,” the ex-aide added.

Dan Bloom and Esther Webber contributed reporting.