Labour's story of a crashed economy is straight from the George Osborne playbook

Labour's revenge is sweet, and ice-cold. It is 14 years since George Osborne, the chancellor, persuaded a lot of people that Labour had crashed the economy and that it would take time for the Conservatives to put it right. Now it is Rachel Reeves's turn for Labour.

- JOHN RENTOUL

In 2010, the Labour Party was supine, electing Ed Miliband as leader with the unspoken slogan, "The Labour government was terrible; vote Labour."

The party allowed the Tories to peddle a version of recent history that was almost the opposite of the truth, which was that Gordon Brown saved the banks. Brown's slip of the tongue claiming to have "saved the world" - was more true than the Osborne version. By saving the banks, Brown stabilised a credit crunch that could have turned into a depression that would have cost millions of jobs; and he helped coordinate global action to do the same elsewhere.

Yet Osborne sold a story of a reckless Labour government that had overspent, failed to "fix the roof while the sun was shining" and bequeathed to him a broken economy that would take at least five years to mend.

Now Labour is engaged in an equal and opposite sleight of hand. Reeves, the new chancellor, is selling a story of a reckless Tory government that tried to make unfunded tax cuts, failed to "fix the foundations" and bequeathed to her a broken economy that will take at least five years to mend.