‘We are in danger of being the doom and gloom government’: can Starmer’s hardline strategy actually work?

The PM’s grim rose-garden message hasn’t impressed voters and some MPs fear ‘tough decisions’ show a lack of empathy – and no promise they’ll pay off

In March 2022, less than a year after she was appointed shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves talked movingly about families living in poverty in her Leeds West constituency. “You look at the kids and you just think, I know you are poor,” she said in an interview with the Observer at the time. “You can see it in the school coats, especially in winter, and in the school shoes. Kids not wearing the proper school uniform, sort of a bit of mix-and-match and it is really sad.”

It was the weekend before the then Chancellor Rishi Sunak was due to deliver his Spring statement to the House of Commons. The Labour opposition was calling for urgent measures from Sunak to ease the cost-of-living crisis. “He really does need to show more empathy,” said Reeves, adding that he should announce a big increase in benefits for those on low incomes, including pensioners.

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