Rachel Reeves thinks she’s underestimated. Time to prove herself

In his memoir of being chancellor of the exchequer as the global financial crisis intensified, Alistair Darling wrote of how he relished long flights because they provided temporary respite from the relentlessness of events at Westminster. One imagines Rachel Reeves experienced similar feelings as she departed for a three-day visit to China, leaving behind turmoil in the financial markets.

One senior minister spoke to me before Christmas of how Labour MPs, spooked by the party’s collapsing poll ratings and the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, believed Reeves’s “aura of authority had been pierced” by the government’s economic struggles since the budget in October. The turbulent events of recent days will only harden scepticism about her performance.

Reeves, who is conscious of her totemic status

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