Epistemic Injustice in Budgetary Politics: A Response to Rachel Reeves's Mais Lecture

Rachel Reeves's March 2024 Mais lecture was an exercise in tempering hope that Britain's threadbare public services would soon be restored to health. The message of restraint might prove to be early confirmation of Reeves's instinctive governing philosophy, but it also reflected the fact that she was called upon to speak in a context of epistemic injustice. Senior Labour politicians must always accept greater scrutiny of their fiscal policy pronouncements than their Conservative counterparts. Their statements are also susceptible to disinformation, such that what Labour's opponents insist its frontbench team are hiding from the electorate often gets treated as a more authentic account of its plans than anything Labour says for itself.