Inside Reeves' No 11

Allies and insiders on the real chancellor

- Heather Stewart

Rachel Reeves hosted a charity breakfast in the grand state room at No 11 Downing Street last week; she stood beneath an 18th-century portrait of a politically powerful woman from another era: Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough.

Part of Reeves's feminist rehang, the painting of Queen Anne's confident right-hand woman, resplendent in velvet, underlined how different the Treasury looks under the first female chancellor.

Yet seven tumultuous and bruising months into Reeves's tenure, critics complain that far from being given a radical makeover, the Treasury has reverted to type, as the department that likes to say "no".

"I always wondered why anyone who had left government always railed against the Treasury - and now the scales have been lifted from my eyes," said one Labour adviser. A senior thinktank figure with close links to government said: "There's a real sense from outside the Treasury of institutional capture."

Reeves's allies reject that characterisation, calling it "total nonsense" and hinting that it includes an undertone of sexism.

The chancellor gave her own justification for tough decisions on the public finances on Sunday, telling the BBC: "It wasn't the wealthiest who lost out when Liz Truss lost control of the economy, it was ordinary working people. And I said: 'Never again will we have a government that plays fast and loose with the public finances.""

Notwithstanding Reeves's reputation for caution, her maiden budget in October was a bumper tax and spending package, including plans to set aside an extra £100bn for public investment - for which Treasury officials complain the press do not give her enough credit.

With a 10-year infrastructure strategy in the works, tomorrow's spring statement is likely to highlight where some of this capital spending will go.