Mansion House Speech Analysis: A solid performance from the Chancellor shows the No10 reset is working

15th November 2024

Public Affairs

Emma Dean

Whilst lower profile than a fiscal event like the Budget, officials and advisers will have spent weeks squirreled away in the Treasury and grand meeting rooms of No11 on the policies and script, taking discreet soundings from trusted third parties on getting the balance right between bold vision and stability.

 

In ‘normal times’, though those are seemingly a distant political memory, the Chancellor’s annual Mansion House speech has a niche audience, focused squarely at business, international markets and the square mile. This time, however, far more eyes were on the announcements and performance of our new Chancellor.

 

With high expectations from the public and business following the election result, fall out over winter fuel payments, and significant tax increases announced just two weeks ago in the Budget, in the days before the speech the Chancellor will have known all eyes were on her next move. Her aim will therefore have been to squarely confront bubbling scepticism around the government’s growth agenda with bold plans, whilst also steadying nerves in the business community.

 

Mansion House has often been used as an opportunity by Chancellors to show more of their personality and areas of personal interest. For Sunak, that was an injection of digital currency and crypto assets, Zahawai a shake up of regulators, and Hunt global science superpower.

 

Last night we saw a more relaxed Reeves than at the dispatch box, clearly in a comfort zone well established from her background at the Bank of England and financial services, but also after a long period of directly wooing the business and finance crowd. Reeves also included a key area of personal interest: the importance of doing more to encourage and support female entrepreneurs and women in finance.

 

In addition to cleanly landing new bold policies, coming so soon after the Budget, this speech was also a test of whether the recent changes at the very top of government to sharpen strategic messaging have started to have an impact. No10 and HMT will be looking at the front pages today satisfied.

 

The pre-trailed policies seemingly landing as planned, with little additional pick up or commentary from the business community. Perhaps partly thanks to Reeves doubling down on the wider narrative she set in train: she has taken the hard but critical steps to fix the foundations and restore stability to our public finances and can now focus on driving growth and competitiveness.

 

Perhaps the biggest take away from the speech should therefore be that we are now seeing the positive influence of a more focused No10 and a shift from the turmoil of Labour’s first 100 days.

 

Emma Dean, Portland Managing Director, is a former adviser to the Chancellor and worked on the 2022 Chancellor Mansion House speech and financial services regulatory reforms.

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