Ed Miliband is said to have fought off curbs to Net Zero projects as the spending review looms.
Ministers have been frantically haggling ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveiling departmental budgets next Wednesday.
But Mr Miliband has now settled with the Treasury after successfully defending the massive £13billion warm homes insulation project.
Negotiations also appear to be complete with Bridget Phillipson’s education department, while Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is believed to be close to agreement.
That seems to leave Angela Rayner as the last hold-out, amid wrangling over money for housing and local government.
The process has become increasingly scratchy as Ms Reeves struggles to balance the books – with stalling growth and looming climbdowns on winter fuel allowance and benefits adding to her problems.
Allies of the Chancellor dismissed the idea she had ‘lost’ negotiations against Mr Miliband.
Economists have been warning that Ms Reeves faces having to hike taxes again and potentially breaking her fiscal rules.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has warned ministers will not get ‘everything they want’ in the spending review due next Wednesday
Ed Miliband is now thought to have settled with the Treasury after successfully defending the massive £13billion warm homes insulation project
But in a speech yesterday Ms Reeves defiantly signalled she will stick to her ‘non-negotiable’ rules, and repeated the Labour manifesto commitment not to increase employee income tax, national insurance or VAT.
She acknowledged ministers will not get ‘everything they want’ in the spending review.
But she urged them to recognise ‘this is a result of 14 years of Conservative maltreatment of our public services’.
‘Over the next week you will hear a lot of debate about my so-called self-imposed fiscal rules,’ she said.
‘Contrary to some conventional wisdom, I didn’t want to come into politics because I care passionately about fiscal rules.
‘I came into politics because I want to make a difference to the lives of working people, because I believe as strongly now as I did when I was inspired to join the Labour Party almost 30 years ago that every person should have the same opportunities to thrive and to succeed.’
She added: ‘I know that economic responsibility and social justice go hand-in-hand.’
After claiming a Reform UK government would repeat the ‘reckless borrowing’ of the Liz Truss era, Ms Reeves said: ‘Let’s be clear: It is not me imposing borrowing limits on Government, those limits are the product of economic reality.’
Ms Reeves said despite a £190billion increase in funding over the spending review period ‘not every department will get everything that they want next week and I have had to say no to things that I want to do too’.
‘That’s not because of my fiscal rules. It is a result of 14 years of Conservative maltreatment of our public services, our public realm and of our economy.
