Spending review is a chance for Reeves to paint a positive picture of Labour's purpose

Rachel Reeves hopes to use Wednesday's spending review to tell a long-overdue story about Labour's purpose in power that looks beyond fixing the Tories' fiscal mess.

- Heather Stewart

After the winter fuel U-turn and Labour's battering at the hands of Reform UK in last month's local elections, the chancellor's team are well aware that voters and backbench MPs need reasons to believe.

They are irked that Reeves gets little credit for the significant uplift in public spending she is delivering for priorities including the NHS, with debate dominated instead by the coming squeeze on "unprotected" departments.

They do have a point. Day-to-day spending, known in Treasury parlance as RDEL, bobbled around £300bn a year between 2010 and 2019 before shooting up during the pandemic and subsequent energy crisis to hit £423bn in 2023-4.

Last autumn's budget included a stonking £40bn-a-year tax increase and bumped up RDEL to an estimated £481bn for the current financial year, a significant surge that prompted thinktanks to increase their forecasts for economic growth.