Chancellor says she has asked Heathrow to present plans for runway expansion by summer

In our leader this morning, the Guardian says Rachel Reeves’ speech yesterday sounded “desperate and shallow”. Here is an excerpt.

There is a balanced debate to be had around the merits of Ms Reeves’s economic argument and what it omits. Supply-side reform may be necessary. But it is not a sufficient condition for growth. Boosting foreign trade is important, but to discuss it without reference to the European single market is disingenuous. If fiscal responsibility is a goal then it should be achieved by ways other than cutting social spending.

But, economics aside, the cumulative effect of those omissions makes the chancellor’s speech sound desperate and shallow. That doesn’t mean the Treasury’s plan is doomed to fail. It might indeed spur growth. But it is presented without a meaningful political argument, without imagination, compassion or moral purpose. Those qualities might not be necessary to boost gross domestic product, but a Labour government is badly diminished without them.