Reeves is arguably the most pro-industrial strategy shadow chancellor since the 1970s

Second, Reeves is willing to go much further than her predecessors to question the nostrums of free market thinking on where economic activity takes place, making her arguably the most pro-industrial strategy shadow chancellor since the 1970s. This wasn’t a new revelation but built on positions set out in speeches she has given all year, including at Labour’s party conference. As well as the standard justification – that a skilful government can reorder production so that higher-value work takes place in the UK – Reeves constantly reiterates the theme of security: a defence angle, but also energy and job insecurity, which she argues undermines the economy.

Her approach will be based on ‘modern supply-side economics’ – and in the ‘everyday economy’

Third, we gained a little more insight into what this industrial strategy might consist of. One of her book’s subjects, US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen, is apparently an intellectual influence, sending me to the US Treasury archive of Yellen’s remarks to puzzle what this means. The answer is “modern supply-side economics” (MSSE), defined against the un-modern variant that is driven by aggressive deregulation and tax-cuts. The old approach failed to boost growth but did worsen inequality; MSSE in contrast emphasises higher labour supply, education, better infrastructure and more R&D. This is all meant to be shaped somehow in pursuit of particular goals and industries, in particular the energy transition. But unlike the 1970s approaches (to which it will doubtless be likened by its critics) Yellen calls for partnership with business rather than the government replacing it.

A Reevesian twist is the “everyday economy” – a theme from her pre-shadow chancellor days that rejects the idea of an industrial strategy solely focussed on high-tech, cutting-edge industries. Instead, she argues the need for less glamorous sectors to be working well for the whole economy to prosper. Labour’s proposals to tighten employment regulations are aimed at helping the workers in these sectors.

Together, this draws the outline of a distinctive economic approach: fiscally prudent, interventionist, a little protectionist, and sceptical towards the value of wholly flexible labour markets. Respect for institutions is a repeating theme, as is multilateralism; the UK clearly cannot have a finger in every pie, and needs trusted international partners if it wants to enhance its economic security. In many ways, with its concern with the deficit, scepticism about the value of tax cuts and pell-mell deregulation, and emphasis on public goods, it is an economic philosophy designed to be the opposite of that still preached by Liz Truss, the 49-day prime minister of late 2022. In political terms that no doubt makes sense.