Apparently, she isn’t making us pay enough tax. That’s the verdict of growing numbers on the left of the Labour Party, who want to replace her with somebody who’ll really go for the jugular.
It’s absurd.
It’s like complaining that PM Keir Starmer hasn’t grabbed enough freebies, or that Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has too much common sense.
But that’s how they think, on the left of the party. Their biggest beef about Labour is that Rachel Reeves is too soft.
She needs to tax more – and spend more of course.
Her growing army of left-wing critics don’t care that taxes were at a record high when Labour took charge, and Reeves piled on another £40billion in her autumn Budget.
Or that the nation’s finances are on a knife edge as she borrows another £30billion a year, lifting the national debt to new records.
They don’t think that’s a problem at all. And they want Reeves replaced.
It almost makes me have sympathy for her.
But not that much sympathy. Reeves entered No. 11 with plans to tax more, spend more and worry about growth later.
She had an instant reality shock when the economy immediately flatlined.
Now she’s desperately searching for ways to make it grow, while a disgrunteld band of former Corbynites moan that she’s spoiled their fun.
They want Labour to go faster, tax harder, spend quicker. And to hell with the consequences.
The left has already forgotten that Reeves has given public sector trade unions inflation-busting pay rises, while asking nothing in return.
Instead, they’re gearing up for the next pay round.
They deride research showing how non-doms, millionaires and wealth makers are fleeing the country to protect their wealth as Reeves swoops.
They don’t carer that the taxes she has introduced will destroy jobs and businesses, costing more than they raise.
And they never mention that hundreds of thousands of jobs destroyed by Reeves’s panicky Budget decision to hike employer’s national insurance by £25billion.
They just think capitalism is evil and must be taught a lesson. They don’t seem to realise that we rely on it to fund the NHS and all the other state services the left are constantly demanding more money for.
They’ve lost connection with reality. What little they had.
If it was down to Reeves’s Corbynite critics, taxpayers would face a fresh onslaught.
The left’s appetite for taxing the so-called “wealthy” won’t end with billionaires. They’ll move onto the rest of us soon enough.
The party’s left isn’t short of ideas. They’re after our pensions, incomes, inheritances, capital gains, property and any other form of wealth we may muster.
At the end of it, they’ll wonder why we were even poorer than before, and call for more taxes.
It’s terrifying to think that Reeves is all that stands between us and them. But for how much longer?
