The Labour finance minister has presided over a remarkably City-friendly portfolio, with red-tape cutting for banks, insurers and beyond.
Elliot Gulliver-Needham
But her relative popularity around the City contrasted with her image among voters, as the most unpopular politician in the country according to YouGov. And she made plenty of enemies in the business community too, with hikes to national insurance contributions for employers and an increase in capital gains tax. The inability of the government to push policies past her left-wing backbenchers, including cuts to welfare, also led to a souring perception of her ability to exert fiscal discipline.
However, even in areas that irritated the financial sector, such as the debate over the tax break for hedge fund and private equity executives, known as carried interest, Reeves moderated her positions to meet the industry in the middle.
It was fitting, then, that her final major speech took place in Mansion House at the City of London on Tuesday, where she was greeted by a raucous round of applause from financial figures, standing with a beaming smile to argue how her record on financial services and the economy had been a roaring success.
“I am proud that the decisions that I have made as chancellor provide a stable platform for the next prime minister to take our country forward,” Reeves told a room containing dozens of banking and insurance CEOs, top lobbying officials, and international figures including the European Commission’s top financial services civil servant and the ambassador of Switzerland.
Things can only get worse
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has long been seen as a leading candidate to replace Reeves, and the City is gloomily accepting that this is a serious possibility. Multiple figures told POLITICO during Tuesday’s Mansion House dinner they were “almost certain” he would take the top job next week, although other names are very much in the fame, including Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.
Miliband, a former Labour leader, has scared the City with previous support for raising taxes on banks and a sense that he will be far more interventionist in the economy.
