The BBC’s Iain Watson has described Labour’s Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as being “on the left of politics.”

That statement might have passed unchallenged in earlier times, when Labour’s association with working-class interests and redistributive policies went largely unquestioned.

But today, in the cold light of what Labour has actually done since taking power in July 2024, such a claim is more than misleading — it’s demonstrably false.

This Site has already published an article pointing out the alternatives to Reeves’s right-wing policies that are available and being urged to her – now let’s examine the ideological position that’s stopping her from taking them.

Benefit cuts: a right-wing starting-point

The new Labour government has announced £5 billion in cuts to welfare spending — including Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Universal Credit.

These are benefits targeted at disabled people and those with long-term health conditions.

The government framed the cuts as “necessary” to balance the books, echoing the rhetoric of Conservative austerity from the 2010s.

Reeves ruled out borrowing to cover day-to-day spending and made it clear that taxation options — especially on the wealthy — were off the table.

This prompted internal backlash, including from Labour’s own Work and Pensions Select Committee and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner.

A leaked memo from Rayner’s department suggested raising £3–4 billion through wealth taxes instead of cutting support for society’s most vulnerable.

The Reeves-led Treasury ignored it.

When public outrage eventually forced a partial U-turn on means-testing the Winter Fuel Payment — a decision that had excluded more than 10 million pensioners — it was seen as political damage control, not a shift in values.

If your instinct is to cut support from disabled and elderly people rather than tax the rich, you’re not governing from the left.

Austerity 2.0 in all but name

The government insists that its economic strategy — dubbed “securonomics” — is progressive.

But it closely resembles orthodox fiscal conservatism.

Reeves has stuck rigidly to self-imposed fiscal rules: no borrowing for daily expenditure and a promise to reduce debt as a share of GDP over five years.

These constraints were initially introduced by Tory chancellor George Osborne and are now being voluntarily maintained by Labour.

In practice, this means that outside of a few carefully-protected departments (NHS, defence, and schools), deep spending cuts are back on the table — even as inequality, public health, and poverty indicators worsen.

Again, this isn’t “left-wing” — it’s a rebrand of austerity economics.

Investment over redistribution

Labour’s economic agenda is increasingly framed around large-scale capital investment: housing, green energy, infrastructure.

That sounds positive, and in isolation, it might be.

But when these projects are paired with cuts to direct welfare support and an unwillingness to increase taxes on the wealthy or corporations, the overall policy mix leans heavily toward the centre-right.

Spending on infrastructure without redistribution or social support doesn’t constitute left-wing governance.

It’s the same playbook used by centre-right technocrats across Europe.

Internal conflict and suppression of dissent

Labour’s internal divisions over these issues are growing sharper.

More than 40 Labour MPs signed a letter opposing the welfare cuts.

Dozens more have expressed dismay over the leadership’s refusal to consider progressive tax reform.

Some backbenchers and even frontbenchers have gone quiet for fear of deselection or suspension — a tactic already used against outspoken MPs on other issues.

This suppression of internal debate is not a sign of left-wing consensus.

It’s a clampdown on an increasingly uncomfortable truth: Labour has abandoned the values that once defined it.

Labour has alternatives — but refuses to use them

As many MPs, economists, and campaigners have pointed out, there are clear alternatives:

• Taxing the wealthiest individuals

• Aligning capital gains with income tax

• Implementing a windfall tax on profiteering corporations

• Reforming council tax based on current property values

• Revising fiscal rules to allow borrowing for social investment

Yet the Labour leadership continues to rule them out, claiming that “there is no alternative.”

It’s a line borrowed straight from Margaret Thatcher — and it reveals far more about Labour’s political orientation than any vague label like “left.”

Let’s stop pretending

Calling Labour a “left-wing” party in 2025 is a denial of observable reality.

The government’s choices — cutting welfare, shielding the wealthy, refusing to borrow, and enforcing tight fiscal rules — all point to a party that has moved firmly into the centre-right space.

That may be a strategic calculation.

It may even be electorally successful — though recent polling dips suggest trouble is brewing.

But it is not left-wing in any meaningful sense of the word.

So let’s stop pretending. The Labour Party under Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves has made its choice.

And it’s not left-wing.