Reeves defends record amid row over spending review

Writing for The Independent, the chancellor tells critics within her party that my choices are Labour choices’

- DAVID MADDOX

Rachel Reeves has hit back against her critics in Labour in a passionate defence of her economic policy as she fends off a cabinet backlash over her spending review.

Labour heavyweights, including deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and home secretary Yvette Cooper, have been holding out on agreeing spending settlements with the Treasury, accusing the chancellor of trying to impose cuts to public services. Among the issues being fought over are funding for local government finances, social housing budgets, border control, and policing.

But in an exclusive article for The Independent about the announcement on extending free school meals to 500,000 more of the poorest pupils, Ms Reeves underlined her record of trying to rebalance the economy in favour of the less well-off.

The chancellor has leaned on her own childhood experience growing up in Lewisham during the Thatcher years, where she recalls school lessons in prefab huts, which she said sparked a “sense of injustice”.

Ms Reeves has previously spoken of the “tough choices” she has been forced to make because of her inheritance from the Tories. But she emphasised in her piece how she has found money for free school meals and – at a time when she is under fire for making £5bn in disability benefit cuts – had also found the cash for above-inflation increases to universal credit from 2026.