Is this the man behind Labour’s controversial attack ads?

Steve Reed is Labour’s shadow justice secretary has form on populist law and order measures

Steve Reed, Labour’s shadow justice secretary (Getty Images)

Labour's controversial attack advert has led to a bout of finger-pointing in the party over who is responsible. Some of those fingers are pointing at Steve Reed.

The shadow justice secretary has been an MP in the south London borough of Croydon since 2012, when he won his seat in parliament through a by-election.

Before that, he ran the neighbouring south London council of Lambeth between 2006 and 2012.

Over the last week the shadow justice secretary has thrown his support behind Labour's attack ads in a very public way, posting the most controversial graphic to his own Twitter profile and adding his own provocative caption: "Labour will lock up child abusers. The Conservatives let them off".

The shadow justice secretary has form on populist law and order gimmicks. While at Lambeth, Reed introduced a scheme to "name and shame" the users of recreational drugs. He later suggested the idea could be rolled out nationwide by his party.

During his time at the council, Reed was widely regarded as one of the most influential council leaders in the country, close to the Labour government (both political and geographically – Lambeth’s territory stretches halfway across Westminster Bridge, stopping metres from the Commons chamber).

His administration was very much of its time. He pioneered the idea of turning Lambeth into a “cooperative council”, an idea which chimed with New Labour’s vision for the public sector but which critics say did not make a lasting impact.

It is fair to say Reed wasn’t universally respected as leader of the council. While he was awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to local government, the council was given a one-star rating from the Audit Commission under his tenure for 2006, the lowest in London. This was for his first year as leader, and at the time he said the rating was “perverse” and that “the star ratings don’t give a full picture”. By the following year, however, the council was given three stars out of a possible four, a position which it maintained in 2008, followed by a largely positive corporate assessment in 2009.

His allies also point out that he oversaw improvements on crime and children’s services while in charge of the south London borough.

The local politician was selected as Labour’s candidate in 2012 for the adjacent safe parliamentary seat of Croydon North, following the death of long-serving MP Malcolm Wicks. He easily romped to victory with 64.7 per cent of the vote.

First appointed to Labour's front bench in 2013 under Ed Miliband, Reed also served under Jeremy Corbyn and was appointed Shadow Communities Secretary by Keir Starmer in April 2020.

A couple of months later he landed in trouble after labelling the businessman Richard Desmond, who is Jewish, a "puppet-master" – an antisemitic trope. Reed said he did not know Desmond was Jewish and apologised, deleting his social media post.

In contrast with other colleagues, no disciplinary action was taken against him for the comments. In 2021 he was moved to the shadow justice secretary role.

The attack ads – which focus on the sentencing of people convicted of sex offences against children – fall squarely in Reed's June policy brief. He has shared them at least five times on his social media channels, so it is fair to say he is enthusiastic about their content.

Allies of the MP would not be drawn on the specifics of his involvement, saying only that decisions on the adverts were taken “across the board”.

It would be simplistic to lay the advert solely at Reed’s door. After all, the adverts clearly have the backing of Labour's leadership – Keir Starmer himself has said he makes no apologies for their content, and that he stands by every word.

But asked on Tuesday if he was responsible for the content, Reed told the Newsagents podcast: “Well, I don’t oversee campaigns, that’s the Labour Party headquarters that does that.

“But I’m the Shadow Justice Secretary, so we spotted the data that was showing how the Conservatives were failing to properly punish offenders for a number of crimes, so that we passed on to the Party. The Party then generated a campaign around it.”

He added that he had seen the adverts “just before they went out”, and that Sir Keir would have also also “known it was coming”.

This article was amended on April 13 2023 to include more information about Lambeth Council’s CPA ratings while Mr Reed was leader.