Labour is hemmed in in all directions - and Rachel Reeves is banking on planning reform to bring growth

24 March 2025, 16:56 | Updated: 25 March 2025, 08:41

By Andrew Marr

@AndrewMarr9

Do you remember that old slogan - whoever you vote for, the government always gets in? Or, to quote the anarchist Emma Goldman, if voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal?

Well, a lot of people in the country and on the left of the labour party are feeling that way ahead of the spring statement this week - yet more cuts, instead of high taxes on the rich or more borrowing.

If we had a Tory government right now, they’d be doing much the same thing.

Frankly, I think if Reform were in power, so would they. Even some Labour MPs are asking quietly, what’s the point of the Labour Party? Well, I’d like you to think about this in a slightly different way.

To me the Labour government are like a herd of restive cattle, on a small patch of turf, hemmed in in every direction by electric fences.

One fence is called recent history – the low growth which means we aren’t earning enough to give ourselves the lifestyle we think we deserve, and the self-imposed buzzing wire erected by labour’s election promises not to raise taxes.

Another fence is called the bond markets, waiting to zap any increase in borrowing.

A third fence is called misfortune – the bad luck of the pandemic and the Ukraine war and what it has done to our finances. In short, they are stuck, mooing plaintively.

Now, they could decide just to take the pain charge through a fence – to raise taxes and dare the rich to leave, or dare Trump to punish us for hitting tech companies. They could charge through the borrowing fence and just hope the markets didn’t punish Britain too badly. But it’s all pretty risky.

That’s why Rachel Reeves is banking on planning reform bringing growth, and somehow hanging on until things improve on that little patch of turf.

I’m not saying it’s heroic. But I understand it and I think sacking the chancellor, as some in labour want, doesn’t remove a single yard of electric fence.

It’s also clear that the public are not any more enthusiastic about cuts in spending than labour MPs are.

A new poll for YouGov today says only 25% of people want spending cut, and that falls to 13% among labour voters.

But there are big majorities against either raising taxes or raising borrowing – which suggests, perhaps, that the British public is stuck on that slithery and increasingly cowpat-covered piece of turf along with the government…

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Andrew Marr presents Tonight with Andrew Marr, on LBC.

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