A Treasury reshuffle on the eve of a Budget is a bad sign for Reeves

Tax-loving Torsten Bell has been handed responsibility for economic policy

Handing responsibility for the economy to a man who was director of policy for Ed Miliband is a sign of desperation from Rachel Reeves, says Eliot Wilson

Every time I see a new announcement from Rachel Reeves at the Treasury now, it puts me in mind of the poet Stevie Smith:

“I was much further out that you thought

And not waving but drowning.”

As the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s second Budget creeps closer, we were briefed last week that Reeves had reshuffled her “top team” and was now looking to her most junior minister, parliamentary secretary Torsten Bell. In the words of The Times, the MP for Swansea West had “been handed responsibility for economic policy”, which must surely be a slight exaggeration,