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Rachel Reeves has ordered a review of the Treasury’s media operation and a campaign to educate Labour MPs on the harsh fiscal reality facing Britain, as the chancellor prepares for a painful Autumn Budget.
Helen Bower-Easton, the prime minister’s official spokesperson at the time of the Brexit vote in 2016, has been brought in to carry out a six-week review to sharpen the Treasury’s communications.
Meanwhile Labour MPs will be invited to meet ministers and officials for briefings on “the choices and options” facing Reeves, according to her allies, amid fears in the finance ministry that some MPs do not fully grasp the country’s tough fiscal situation.
“There’s a big autumn ahead,” said one Treasury insider, as Reeves confronts the prospect of big tax rises to fill a growing fiscal hole, which became £6.25bn deeper after chaotic U-turns on welfare reforms and the winter fuel allowance.
Allies of Reeves said Bower-Easton, director of communications at the Financial Conduct Authority, had been seconded to review the Treasury’s media operation to “make sure it is fit for purpose and fit for the future”.
Her review will look to ensure the Treasury is properly communicating the government’s growth agenda, its plan for public services and how a worsening fiscal situation could force Reeves to retreat on promises that big tax rises were in the past.
Bower-Easton, spokesperson for Conservative prime ministers Lord David Cameron and Theresa May in 2016-17, will also look at staffing levels in the Treasury communications operation and its use of different media to shape opinion.
Sir Mel Stride, Tory shadow chancellor, said: “Sharpening their spin won’t fix the mess Labour have made — try selling looming tax rises with a smile.”
Reeves is also determined to win the argument for fiscal discipline with Labour MPs, after 126 signalled they were willing to rebel and reject the government’s £5bn plan to cut sickness and disability benefits. The reforms were subsequently dropped.
Although some backbenchers claim that increasing taxes on wealth would help to fill a hole in the public finances, Treasury figures lament what they see as a lack of fiscal literacy among Labour MPs.
A post on X in which a journalist reported overhearing a Labour MP saying that they could not understand why axing welfare reforms would force Reeves to raise taxes was widely shared in One Horse Guards Road.
“We will be bringing in MPs to explain the kind of choices and options,” said one ally of Reeves.
Treasury officials said the chancellor recognised there was a lot of explaining to be done, both to MPs and voters.
Last November she suggested the £40bn of tax rises in her first Budget had stabilised the public finances and were a one-off.
“Public services now need to live within their means because I’m really clear, I’m not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes,” Reeves told the CBI business group at the time.
Some economists believe she could face a fiscal hole of at least £20bn in the autumn.
While this month’s welfare retreat led to chaotic scenes in the House of Commons, Reeves believes the Spending Review in June — which combined tough controls on day-to-day spending and a splurge on capital projects — was a well-executed media and political operation.
Morgan McSweeney, Downing Street chief of staff, told colleagues at the time that it was “one of the government’s best moments”, with Reeves managing to largely avoid the risk that the event would be dominated by headlines focused on the probability of future tax rises.
Reeves has told the Treasury she wants to replicate that operation ahead of her Autumn Budget, setting out arguments and tough choices to MPs and the public before what is likely to be a searing fiscal event.
One former Treasury adviser said: “The focus on comms feels like a distraction from the real issue, which is the weakness of the policymaking itself. Winter fuel payment and the welfare debacles weren’t ‘comms issues’ — they were bad policies from the outset.
“Treasury comms has long been one of the most agile and effective operations in Whitehall. Unlike some departments with sprawling press teams, HMT runs lean — often with fewer than 30 press officers — yet delivers more impact, more quickly, and with far greater grip.
“What sets them apart is that many of the team are former policy advisers or officials. That means they’re not just passing on lines but understand the substance and can hold the pen on complex issues under serious pressure.”
But some Labour MPs believe the Treasury needs to be more assertive. “We should be more forceful about arguing for our economic strategy,” said one. “We have a good story to tell but we just don’t tell it with enough confidence, verve and pizzazz.”
