Rachel Reeves may be unpopular, but she is quietly rebalancing UK plc

Policy U-turns could define her stint at No 11 despite many sure-footed advances on devolved spending to help kickstart growth

An air of unreality settled on a Westminster conference room last week, as Rachel Reeves , upbeat in a powder pink power suit, gave a speech about boosting jobs and growth along the “OxCam corridor”.

“If we get this right, working together, this corridor will not just compete globally, it will lead globally. We can do that together!” she told the audience of investors, policymakers and entrepreneurs.

She was warmly received; but few in the room can have been unaware that the chancellor may be out of the job in a few weeks’ time, if Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield byelection, sweeps into Westminster, and topples Keir Starmer.

Reeves is irrevocably associated with some of Labour’s most embarrassing reversals – on the winter fuel allowance and disability benefits cuts, as well as the quieter climbdown on farmers’ inheritance tax.

And the increase in employer national insurance contributions (NICs), which she reached for to avoid busting Labour’s ill-advised manifesto tax pledges, cannot have helped the struggling jobs market.

The killjoy demeanour that advisers thought best to build trust in the UK’s first female chancellor – in contrast to her warmth away from the camera – does not seem to have endeared her to voters either.

Polling suggests Reeves is the least popular senior politician – though chancellors in hard times are never going to be loved, and misogyny may play a role too. YouGov’s latest tracker found a bleak 66% of respondents viewed her unfavourably, against 17% with a positive opinion.