Reeves makes pitch to be 'iron' chancellor who gets UK economy back on track

Labour will fight the next election on the economy, Rachel Reeves has told the party's conference, claiming she would be the "iron" chancellor who would help rebuild Britain after 13 years of Conservative rule.

- Pippa Crerar

In a conference speech that offered few new policy announcements, the shadow chancellor set out her version of Bidenesque economic nationalism that would expand the economy "from the bottom up and the middle out" in the interests of working people.

In a major coup for Labour, Mark Carney, the former Bank of England governor who was appointed by former Conservative chancellor George Osborne in 2013, endorsed Reeves, saying it was "beyond time" her ideas were put into action. She told a packed hall in Liverpool that she intended to address them as Britain's first female chancellor when they next met.

"The post of chancellor of the exchequer has existed for 800 years. In that time - not one single woman has held that post," she said.

Reeves said she did not underestimate the scale of the task ahead for Labour as it attempted to overturn the Tories' massive majority at the next election. "Change will be achieved only on the basis of iron discipline," she said.

"Working people rightly expect nothing less. Because when you play fast and loose with public finances, you put at risk family finances."