The ‘Leeds reforms’ revive a finance-first growth model – repackaging a failed economics as strategy, while sidelining real investment and wagesRachel Reeves’s Mansion House speech mattered less for what it changed than what it confirmed: she’s staying – and backing the City. After spooking markets with tears in the Commons, appearing with the Bank of England governor was damage control. The “Leeds reforms” were billed as bold, but the real message was a return to business as usual.Delivered to a City audience, the speech confirmed a deregulatory tilt that is striking not for its boldness but for its familiarity. Her “reform” of the ringfencing regime for banks is code for loosening constraints under pressure from the finance lobby. Streamlining the regime brought in after the 2008 crash to hold bank leaders personally responsible for regulatory breaches will weaken post‑crisis accountability standards.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please