Spending Review: Labour tried looking prudent. Do we now want to look lavish?

For much of this government’s life, ministers have tried hard to look as prudent and downbeat as possible about their economic inheritance and “difficult decisions” on spending, and Keir Starmer has often sought to distance himself from the Labour party of old.

There’s a clear political logic to it in George Osborne-style buck-passing for political challenges, reassuring both markets and voters who doubted Labour’s economic competence at past elections, and managing many of our expectations of widespread change after 14 years of the Tories.

But it makes for some pretty depressing politics, and doom-and-gloom sentiment can dampen consumer and business spending too. Many voters are cynical about politicians’ capacity to deliver change, but they still want change somehow.

That focus on fiscal prudence remains largely the order of the day, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves resisting pressure to loosen the government’s self-imposed fiscal rules ahead of today’s Spending Review (expected at 12.30pm today; watch live here).

READ MORE: ‘Spending Review must pass living standards test’

And yet in the past few days and weeks, we have seen a different side to the government – one striving hard primarily to show this is a Labour government with Labour values, and look like it’s turning on the spending taps, not turning them off.

Painting good news rather than pitch-rolling for the bad

Governments face a choice in the lead-up to delivering bad news at tough fiscal events  – and this undoubtedly will be, given the heavy squeeze on many departmental budgets – between pitch-rolling for it through gloomy rhetoric, and painting over it with a barrage of good news instead.

While Reeves did suggest departments won’t get everything they want, the bulk of Labour messaging has signalled the opposite.

We’ve had already:

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• £39 billion capital spending towards affordable housebuilding over a decade
• Suggestions the NHS will get some £30 billion of funding
• A free school meals expansion that the government says will lift 100,000 children out of poverty
• A partial winter fuel U-turn more far-reaching than many expected

This isn’t just a Spending Review. It’s a Labour Spending Review

More than that, ministers have also interestingly sought to emphasise just how Labour this government is in recent days.

First Bridget Phillipson wrote for LabourList on how “we have acted fast to deliver on our values – making the choices only Labour governments make to bring down the cost of living for working families”.

Child poverty is a “scourge which it is the moral purpose of our party to tackle. We tackled it under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and we are tackling it now under Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves”, the Education Secretary wrote.

Then Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones wrote to Labour members last night, emphasising that “in this review, we’re making Labour choices”.

“Choices that our opponents wouldn’t make – like rolling out free school meals to over half a million more children. Having a Labour government that’s able to make these choices is long overdue – it’s why we’re all Labour Party members in the first place.”

It feels a long way from the speech Starmer made almost exactly a year ago today, entitled: “country first, party second”.

One government insider acknowledged the new positioning, adding: “It’s a proudly Labour Spending Review, underpinned by proud Labour values and ambition the country and for working families.”

The delicate balancing act continues between representing enough change to inspire swing voters, but not so much it scares them – and no less crucially government bondholders – about Labour’s ability to handle the public pursestrings.

Is this change just a one-off to gloss over the cracks and brace for the looming fallout over cutbacks, or are we seeing the start of a small swing on those scales towards ‘change’?

Read more of our 2025 Spending Review news and analysis:

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