Right turn ahead for Reeves and Starmer

Against all their instincts, Labour are about to turn further right. Centre-right politicians and think tanks must drive them forward in a situation which is more serious than commonly understood.

The BBC reports, Chancellor set to cut welfare spending by billions. But what was Rachel Reeves saying in the 2010 parliament, when George Osborne was trying to balance the books after the Global Financial Crisis and Reeves and I had not long been elected?

Right turn ahead for Reeves and Starmer – image by DALL•E

Here is a sample of her stridency:

One week before Christmas we have a chance to bring hope and relief to hundreds of thousands of people who are struggling to stay in their home, pay the bills and put food on the table by scrapping this cruel and punitive tax on bedrooms, which is yet another example of Tory welfare waste.

As far as I can tell, Labour have not yet abolished “the bedroom tax” which Reeves so frequently described as “cruel”, nor have they reversed many of our other reforms to welfare. They can’t afford to, for reasons I will come to.

Now they wish to go further. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood told the BBC:

"There's a moral case here for making sure that people who can work are able to work and there's a practical point here as well, because our current situation is unsustainable.”

Alas that they did not work this out 15 years ago: we might have made more progress.

But that is politics for you¹. What is the situation now, what will happen next and how should the centre-right family respond in fighting for a free future?