The Mais Lecture is an annual address hosted by Bayes Business School in the City of London, with a tradition of Chancellors and Shadow Chancellors using it to set out their broader economic thinking. Past speakers include Rishi Sunak, George Osborne and Mark Carney.
It's not a Budget; there's no OBR scorecard. But that's precisely what makes it useful – free from the constraints of a fiscal event, it's where Chancellors get to articulate their economic philosophy and set out their stall on the big structural questions.
Rachel Reeves used the 2024 lecture, delivered while still in Opposition, to launch "Securonomics": the idea of an active, strategic state that backs investment and builds resilience rather than leaving markets to their own devices. It set the tone for Labour's first Budget. Returning today as Chancellor, she had to show that her philosophy is producing results, and not just present a compelling argument for why it should.
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