𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Nobody likes being fired – and that goes double for politicians. Many will try to cling to their jobs even when the rest of the world knows their time is up.

That’s why Rachel Reeves has just delivered a lengthy plea to Andy Burnham, setting out why she should be allowed to remain Chancellor. Officially, her Mansion House speech this week was aimed at managers from the financial services sector, who were listening politely in a central London venue.

But the real target audience was the incoming prime minister. And her message to Andy was that he should forget about Ed Miliband, Shabana Mahmood and Pat McFadden – the names being circulated as possible replacements for Ms Reeves once Mr Burnham becomes prime minister on July 20. “If you’re wondering who should be chancellor,” Ms Reeves was effectively saying, “the answer is staring you in the face. Just let me stay where I am.”

Sadly for Ms Reeves, the chances of that happening are zero. Mr Burnham will no doubt make the effort to say something nice to her, but the first thing he will do, if he hopes to rebuild support for Labour among voters, is boot her out of the Treasury.

She used the speech to set out her commitment to two big policy issues which Mr Burnham has made a top priority. The first is devolution – taking power out of London and giving it to the north, Midlands and other areas of the country.

The second is continuing to reverse Brexit, not just by carrying out the “reset” with the EU, as planned by Sir Keir Starmer, but also by going “much further”.

While we still don’t know much about Andy Burnham’s plans for power, we do know that he very much agrees with these two views.

Ms Reeves has been at the very top of the Government for two years already, so it’s hard to understand why she is only saying these things now if it’s not curry favour with Mr Burnham,

On Brexit, she told her audience that she backed the policies of Sir Keir Starmer, saying: “I want to see the next UK-EU summit rescheduled as soon as possible, so that we can finalise ambitious agreements on agrifoods, emissions trading, electricity and a Youth Experience Scheme.”

However, she added: “But I think that we need to be much bolder and go much further, moving towards a trusted economic and security partnership, where the default is the UK is included not excluded, recognising that in the majority of cases, that will be the approach with the greatest benefits for Britain.”

And she portrayed herself firmly as a pro-EU politician, saying: “To achieve that, it will be incumbent on those of us who believe in Britain’s relationship with Europe to make the argument and to demonstrate the positive difference it will make to the British people.”

Ms Reeves said: “The prize for Britain of a closer relationship with Europe is immense.”

It’s not long ago that Labour claimed to accept the results of the Brexit referendum, if not actually support it. But that’s changed, and while the change began under Sir Keir, Labour is set to become even more anti-Brexit under Mr Burnham.

Ms Reeves also portrayed herself as a champion of devolution – including allowing regional mayors to impose more taxes.

She said this means “giving regional leaders control over a share of national taxes including income tax and business rates.”

Ms Reeves added: “There is much further to go.”

You can’t blame her for trying. But the Chancellor’s attempt to re-apply for her own job is doomed to failure.