Rachel Reeves was never going to miss the open goal left by the Tories

Rachel Reeves could not have had a better job. The shadow chancellor stood up to speak at Labour’s conference with the pound under pressure and rumours swirling that the Bank of England was about to announce an emergency increase in interest rates.

Labour has struggled to be seen as the party of economic competence. Famously, Denis Healey dashed to Blackpool in 1976 to make an impassioned – but not entirely successful – appeal for conference’s support for tough measures during a sterling crisis.

This year, it was quite different. Reeves, a former Bank of England economist, was presented with an open goal thanks to Kwasi Kwarteng’s badly received mini-budget and she was determined not miss it.

In Liverpool, Reeves could market herself as the chancellor-in-waiting who would sort out a mess bequeathed by the Tories: higher borrowing, higher imported inflation and higher mortgages. She said that trickle-down economics was a simple idea but a very wrong one.

Reeves isn't the most charismatic public speaker. However, high-flown oratory wasn't needed at this occasion. Two themes were shared by her: Labour would be a more responsible government in the economy, and it could do this while being the party for social justice.

The big announcement was that a Labour government would reverse Kwarteng’s scrapping of the 45% rate of income tax paid by the highest earners and spend the £2bn raised on extra doctors, nurses, midwifes and health visitors. Had the chancellor not announced his tax break for those earning more than £150,000, Reeves would have been forced to find another way to fund her health pledge, something that was clearly planned long before the mini-budget.

This speech was light on specific policies. A commitment was made by Labour that a future government would ask the Low Pay Commission for a minimum wage that reflects the cost of living. A Labour government announced that it would establish a national economic council, which would include representatives from industry, government, and unions. This was a revival of the tripartite approach, which was abandoned by John Major three decades later.

But Labour’s judgment is that next year’s conference will be the time to unveil manifesto pledges before a likely 2024 election.

Some obvious questions were left unanswered. Labour would not reverse the government’s cut in the 20% rate of income tax or the decision to scrap the increase in national insurance contributions that took effect in April, but it has not said how it would pay for these commitments. It has not yet provided details on how it would pay to freeze energy bills for the six months beyond the initial six months of a cap.

But for now, it doesn’t need to. The government is borrowing tens of billions more to pay down energy bills and for tax cuts. And it is the Conservative party, after 12 years in power, that owns Britain’s economic mess.

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