Why is £1 billion of public money helping rebuild Old Trafford? The Labour government is pouring cash into the project, even though Manchester United FC has plenty of cash of its own.

The money will part-fund a broader £2 billion project aimed at transforming the stadium into a modern facility, potentially increasing its capacity to 100,000 seats.

Apparently,

The club says the new stadium, and the wider regeneration project, has the potential to deliver an additional £7.3bn per year to the UK economy.

This includes creating up to 92,000 new jobs, more than 17,000 new homes and attracting an extra 1.8 million visitors every year.

Very nice. But Manchester United makes around £650 million per year and the project is expected to run for five years. Why can’t the club pay for the whole project itself?

In fact, there’s a very good reason: in the year ending June 30, 2024, the club posted a loss of £113.2 million, despite revenues of £661.8 million. It doesn’t seem to be very good with money.

And that’s a very good reason for the government not to support this project – it looks like a bad investment, being promoted by a business that can’t make a profit.

Otherwise, why couldn’t Man U get other businesses to help fund it?

It might be a good investment – if it can turn the profit that has been predicted.

But that can’t even happen until more than five years after work begins, meaning Labour probably won’t be in office to reap any public relations benefits.

Well, would you vote for that party, considering the way it has targeted vulnerable people who expected its help? Who else will Labour attack in the four-years-and-change left to this Parliament?

Perhaps Rachel Reeves [pictured] (she holds the purse strings, remember) is hoping that the economic activity necessitated by the construction work will be enough to persuade the people of Manchester to continue supporting Labour.

But whichever way you slice it, she’s gambling with our money.