DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Rachel Reeves's China jaunt is dereliction of duty

Nearly 50 years ago a Labour chancellor, beset by economic problems at home, hoped to leave his troubles behind him for a few days by attending a meeting in the Philippines. 

As he sipped gin and tonic in Heathrow’s VIP lounge, Denis Healey was told the pound was collapsing and that he must return at once to the Treasury.

The rest is history. Britain had to beg for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund to stave off going bust. 

This led to the winter of discontent, mass unemployment, the collapse of the Callaghan government and, ultimately, the cure of Thatcherism. Today, another Labour Chancellor presides over an unfolding economic car crash. 

The picture may not yet be as bleak as in 1976, but the parallels are clear – rising inflation, moribund growth, taxes breaking the backs of ordinary families and public spending out of control. 

Like Healey, Rachel Reeves hopes to park her domestic woes for a while by embarking on a trip to China. She hopes that sucking up to communist dictators will lead to closer trade ties and boost investment. 

Whether this jaunt is advisable at all is highly debatable. Beijing is bent on global domination, has an appalling human rights record and was last month implicated in a plot to spy on the highest echelons of the British establishment. 

And with the bond market currently in turmoil and threatening Labour’s economic plans, surely the Chancellor would be better staying at home in case a bout of jitters turns into a full-blown crisis?

Yesterday, government borrowing costs continued to surge, while the pound fell to its lowest level in more than a year. Financiers are so spooked that they are making Britain pay more to service debt even than Greece – a nation frequently derided as an economic basket case. 

Ms Reeves has no one to blame for this loss of confidence but herself and her Left-wing policies. Having catastrophised about the state of the economy Labour inherited, she misjudged her first Budget by slapping punishing taxes on business, while letting borrowing and spending rip. 

It was not only entirely predictable that this would kill off growth, but it was also obvious that international investors would baulk at an economy sliding into stagnation. 

Of course, higher borrowing costs are not just numbers on a Whitehall balance sheet. They mean higher interest rates for longer, inflicting yet more pain on families with mortgages and businesses with loans. 

The dramatic £10billion-a-year increase in government debt repayments could wipe out the Chancellor’s fiscal headroom. With no sign of any plan for growth, she has two options to balance the books. 

Raise taxes again and risk tipping us into a full-on recession. Or cut spending, putting her on a collision course with Labour MPs and her union paymasters. It would be better if she chose the latter.

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Rachel Reeves urged to stay and sort out 'Budget mess' rather than 'fleeing' to Beijing

The public sector has become a drag on the country and there is plenty of fat to trim. Of course, there is another way the Government could save a little money – by not handing our Chagos Islands to Mauritius and paying billions for the pleasure.

With the world at its most volatile since 1945, it is truly unfathomable that Sir Keir Starmer should be scrambling to surrender this territory – home to a strategically vital UK-US airbase – to an ally of China.

Is that why Ms Reeves is so desperate to reach Beijing? So she can hand the keys to the islands directly to President Xi?