The chancellor Rachel Reeves has been accused of miserablism over her tax and spending plans. Photograph: Sam Frost/The Guardian
He embarks on one of his favoured metaphors, which is to compare his task to restoring a rotting building. “When you’re redecorating a house, you can be tempted to paint over the damp and the cracks, and people do. Landlords often do. But the damp comes back. The cracks are still there.” Better, he argues, to “strip it down” to do the job properly.
The criticism, which is to be widely heard among his colleagues, is that he has not painted an appealing picture of what it will be like living in the house once it has been refurbished. “We had to make it clear what the inheritance was. But, to accept your challenge, we do need to say why and explain and set out and describe the better Britain that this ladders up to.” He adds: “That is the central purpose of my conference speech, which is to answer that very question.”
There will be ructions at the conference from trades unions and party activists who oppose ending the universality of the winter fuel payment by restricting it to pensioners on pension credit. He continues to defend the government’s most contentious act so far. “We’ve got £22bn to find and there are no easy decisions when you’ve got £22bn to find… We couldn’t pretend it’s not there… That means really difficult decisions.”
He also suggests that there will be more of them to come. “It’s going to be tough” he says of Reeves’s budget at the end of October.
He has a potentially more reassuring message for those who fear that a Labour version of austerity is coming down the track which will entail deep cuts to public spending. “I’m acutely aware that our public services are on their knees. I ran a public service. I know what cuts feel like. And I know that a lot of them are cut to the bone.”
He has been heard to say in the past that the time he spent as an opposition MP were “the most futile” of his life. For all the battalions of troubles already assailing him, he’s clearly relishing holding the levers of power. Comparing government with opposition, he remarks: “It’s much tougher, but much better, if that makes sense. It’s tougher than being in opposition because you’ve got to make real decisions. But it’s better because you get to make real decisions.” Yes, that does make sense.
