When it comes to politicians, it is imperative to strip away the gloss and consider the substance of the matter.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s trip to Brussels on Monday to meet European Union finance ministers was a case in point.

There was a bit of breathless reporting about the “reset” of relations with the EU talked about by Ms Reeves. And there was much focus on how it was the first time a UK chancellor had joined such a meeting since Brexit, a fact highlighted by the Labour Government itself.

That is not to say the talk of a “reset” or attendance at the meeting were entirely uninteresting.

However, the key takeaway from Ms Reeves’s visit is surely, sadly, that nothing of substance has really changed.

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In case anyone was in any doubt about what was going to happen - and they should not really have been in any case given consistent messaging from Labour about holding on to the key elements of the Tory hard Brexit - Ms Reeves made matters plain after the meeting.

Specifically, and this is absolutely the crux of the matter, she highlighted again after the meeting Labour’s “red lines” made clear around the General Election about not rejoining the European Union or the single market, or even the customs union, and not agreeing to free movement of people. This was interpreted in some quarters, understandably, as another rejection by Labour of even a youth mobility scheme between the UK and EU.

So that was the substance of the matter.

The rest was so much spin, about rebuilding “bonds of trust that have........

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