Ignore the bombast: Steve ‘build, baby, build’ Reed’s boast looks likely to end in targets more pathetic than they are now
I
f the name Steve Reed means little to you, rest assured that is a pothole he is eager to fill. Having replaced Angela Rayner as housing secretary, he bounded around Labour conference last month dishing out Maga-red caps stamped with his credo “Build Baby Build!”. Headgear and slogan have both been filched from that very rightwing guy in the White House – because, like Robert Jenrick, Steve Reed is what happens when self-identified centrists turn populist.
Imagine Donald Trump had, years ago, swerved TV fame to become instead ward councillor for Brixton Hill. Imagine if Trump had no towers, but knew his way round a Travelodge. Most of all, imagine this scene from the conference fringe, recounted by Inside Housing magazine:
“Steve Reed skipped into the room only once the well-orchestrated chanting by his party faithful was deemed loud enough to the tune of We Built This City by Starship. He then took to the stage and proceeded to throw more signed and branded merchandise into the crowd, before cracking open a bottle of alcohol because ‘all builders need a beer’.
