Arriving for this evening’s meeting between the chancellor and Labour parliamentarians, the health secretary was upfront with waiting reporters about his view on today’s spending allocations.
“Just basking in the warm glow of the benevolent chancellor,” said Wes Streeting – presumably only half joking.
A better story to tell voters?
The focus of Rachel Reeves’s address to the party troops was they need to get out and sell what she had announced at the despatch box.
“People are only going to know the good news that we set out today if we campaign on it, if we deliver the leaflets, if we speak to people on the doorstep, if we write those pieces for our local papers, that is how people are going to know that it is Labour making these differences,” she said.
The political hope from today is the government has given backbenchers a better story to tell.
One government source said measures like free school meals and NHS spending would be felt in all constituencies, giving MPs something to campaign on.
Ditto with infrastructure spending for those lucky enough to see cash splashed in their region.
In all but exceptional circumstances, these party gatherings aren’t usually the moment for open dissent.
And indeed, there was plenty of laughing and joking from behind the closed doors of Committee Room 10 and apparently few challenging questions for the chancellor.
One person did ask about policing funding, I’m told, but no one brought up council tax, asylum hotels or welfare.
One MP even emerged from the meeting clutching a copy of the spending review document signed by Reeves and her deputy Darren Jones.
Asked if anyone else had asked for a signed copy of the document, one source said “Wes”, before clarifying that was a joke.
