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It’s not often Rachel Reeves emits a belly laugh and lets slip what is really in her mind. But it happened at the tail end of a long Q&A session on stage shortly after her arrival in Washington.
Would the chancellor be conducting trade negotiations with Donald Trump’s team over a chessboard, the former schoolgirl champion was asked? Reeves giggled and, guard down for a moment, joked: “I might win some then!”
True, if trade talks were played to a rules-based order like chess, the chancellor’s three-day visit to the US might well yield some quick victories. But Trump upturned the board with his tariffs and now Reeves is just one of three dozen finance ministers in DC begging for some slack to save their doomed growth forecasts.
Trump is, alas, not an easy guy to see. And while Reeves was glad-handing EU politicians and bankers, with Lord Mandelson gliding at her side, POTUS was busy entertaining the Norwegian prime minister, also kowtowing for a tariffs deal.
Which is why the chancellor found herself booked onto a breakfast slot on Trump’s new favourite TV channel, Newsmax.
Run by a Trump donor, it has given airtime to such bonkers conspiracy theories as a “satanic” Covid vaccine that let users be “tracked”. Labour ministers are something of a novelty on Newsmax, where Liz Truss is a popular guest. Thanks to Trump falling out recently with Fox News, there was just a chance that he might be watching over his corn flakes in the West Wing.
Hair pushed neatly behind her ears, ivory silk blouse and eggshell blue suit, Reeves hadn’t looked so eager-to-please since her interview for the Bank of England grad scheme. Two union flags were planted beside her chair, just to remind the prez which country she was grovelling for.
https://www.newsmaxtv.com/Shows/Wake-Up-America/vid/442f9bf0-2127-11f0-bfbe-2f3f55d978e1
Quizzing her was Marc Lotter, who used to be Trump’s press secretary, and Sharla McBride, a predictably blonde and youthful sidekick to craggy Lotter. They asked why European countries were rushing to boost their defence budgets.
Reeves wisely refrained from explaining that it was because Trump is insanely rewarding Europe’s most dangerous military aggressor. Instead she replied breezily: “Good morning. It’s absolutely crucial that Europe steps up and spends more on defence, and that’s why in the United Kingdom we are injecting the largest increase since the end of the cold war.”
Lotter and McBride stared ahead inscrutably. Two motionless salamanders daring a fly to come a little closer.
Would the UK be “stepping up” by meeting Trump’s wish for European nations to devote five per cent of GDP to defence, Lotter asked.
Of course not, Reeves could have chuckled: The UK can’t even afford disability benefits nowadays! Instead, she smiled glacially and chuntered that it was “important in Europe that we better coordinate our defence spending in the way that America co-ordinates its defence spending”. Anything to duck the question, though her eyebrow-raising idea of pooling Britain’s defence budget with the EU’s may ignite some political bushfires back home.
The questions turned to tariffs and Reeves had all her key lines ready. “I absolutely understand the concerns the United States have about imbalances.” Tick. “Particularly when it comes to China.” Tick. “The UK and US have balanced trade.” Tick.
More ambitiously, she had a go at pretending Trump and Keir Starmer are political bros, having both been elected last year on a “promise of change” because their economies “were not working for working people”.
An unsmiling Lotter wished her luck and the chancellor’s audience was over.
Later, Reeves took to the IMF main stage for an economic panel discussion. It was an hour-long session that provided some revealing moments about what makes the chancellor tick.
The other panellists tried to liven things up by revealing what their favourite movies taught them about crisis-management. German finance minister Jörg Kukies quoted from Pulp Fiction: “I’m Winston Wolfe. I solve problems.” Argentinian deregulation minister Federico Sturzenegger channelled Yoda from the Star Wars franchise: “The fear of loss is the path to the dark side.”
Reeves, clearly bored, mumbled about being a mum so she only saw Paddington, Wicked and Harry Potter nowadays.
But when someone brought up deregulation, the chancellor caught fire, launching into a tirade against environmental rules. “They’re holding up pylons from being built,” she spluttered, “they’re stopping wind farms.” Ministers were constantly being told to “block this wind farm because of sea bream swimming in that part of the north sea … or some spiders which are unique to this area means you can’t build the thousands and thousands of homes we need”. Getting properly angry, she brought up the bat tunnel built for £100 million “because otherwise the bats would not be able to cross the road. I mean, it’s insane”.
Damn those pesky spiders and sea bream for holding back the UK economy!
Reeves also suggested that financial regulations put up after the 2007 crash might be reconsidered for the sake of growth, which caused a few nervous glances in the hall.
If Trump had been tuned in, he would have been impressed. But, of course, he despises multilateral talk shops like the IMF so he won’t have heard a word of Reeves’ most authentic speech of the day.
Much later, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva made a remark about Brexit and growth, saying: “When the divorcees are talking again we are in a great place.” Reeves put a hand on the German finance minister’s shoulder and they high-fived.
Her pitch was clear: When it comes to growth, Reeves will do anything. The question, as she sits down for trade talks with US treasury secretary Scott Bessent later today, is whether Trump is yet ready to play ball.
English (US) ·