Rachel Reeves has insisted that she will not let her critics “beat me” as she urged Labour MPs to unite behind her make-of-break Budget.
The chancellor looked to rally the Labour troops on Monday night, vowing that she’ll still be chancellor in two years’ time if they back her plans for the economy and stick together as a party.
She is said to have told them: “I’ll show the media, I’ll show the Tories. I will not let them beat me. I’ll be there on Wednesday, I’ll be there next year and I’ll be back the year after that.”
The chancellor also hit out at “armchair” critics who had questioned her ability to do the job. “I don’t think even I had recognised the misogyny that still exists in public life,” she is reported to said.
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The chancellor is due to deliver her Budget in the House of Commons on Wednesday, in which she is widely expected to pull the lever on a “smorgasboard” of tax hikes in order to fill the public coffers.
Many Labour MPs have become increasingly frustrated about the prospect of tax rises on the horizon, amid their party’s opinion poll slump less than two years into a term of government.
At the gathering of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Ms Reeves told restive backbenchers that politics is a “team sport”.
The chancellor’s decision to remind MPs of this was “because united parties are the ones who win elections”, according to a Treasury spokesman.
Ms Reeves also described the Budget as a “package” not a “pick ‘n’ mix”, urging MPs to back the whole of it rather than single out parts they dislike for criticism.
“You can’t say I like the cola bottles but not the fruit salad,” she is reported to have said.
On Tuesday morning, a ministerial colleague said that the chancellor “relishes the challenge” of her job when asked whether she has been subjected to misogyny.
Asked whether there should be more focus on “competence and success” than “identity politics”, or whether she thought it was true that Ms Reeves had faced misogyny in her role, health minister Karin Smyth told Times Radio: “Look, Rachel is well able to challenge and relishes the challenge that she has got as the first female Chancellor.
“I think both things can be true. I think absolutely, I’m often in a situation where I’m the only woman in the room.
“That happens to Rachel a lot in her world, but all chancellors face a lot of criticism. She’s well up for that challenge, able to face that down.”
The Budget comes as Labour’s and Sir Keir Starmer’s poll ratings have both tumbled since last year’s general election. Labour backbenchers are likely to be content with 95 per cent of this week’s Budget, the chancellor suggested when she met MPs on Monday night, and hinted at difficult political decisions yet to be announced.
Ms Reeves is said to be facing a more difficult economic outlook in the medium term, with Sky News reporting that the Office for Budget Responsibility has downgraded its growth forecast for 2026 and every other year before the next election due in 2029.
The downgrade, and the subsequent reduction in tax revenues, will force the chancellor to hike taxes to balance the books and build a bigger buffer against future shocks than the historically-low level of headroom she has previously given herself.
As she is preparing to undertake what has been described as a “smorgasbord” approach to raising tax, Ms Reeves could hit high-value properties with a new levy that applies to those worth more than £2 million and could raise £400-£450 million, according to reports.
But she has already been warned about the impact of the so-called “mansion tax” if it is implemented incorrectly.
Economist Paul Johnson, formerly of the influential Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, told The I Paper that a full revaluation of council tax was needed, rather than simply raising the highest tax bands.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called the Budget “a moment to restore confidence and put this Labour government back on track”.
Writing in The Independent, he said: “Ultimately both voters and businesses will have benefitted from decisions this UK Labour government has made.
“The tragedy is the failure to project confidence and communicate those changes have left them feeling uncertain. But if we do not act to increase business confidence, then we will be stuck in the doom loop of speculation, timidity and short-termism that holds our economy back.”
