Labour is holding daily coronavirus meetings with advice from experts and foreign leaders to shape party's pandemic response

Appearing on The Yorkshire Post’s political podcast, Pod’s Own Country, Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves spoke about the team, which it is understood is seen as what leader Sir Keir Starmer would expect were he in No 10.

Ms Reeves said: “There's a team of us who meet every morning to help ensure that we're on top of all of the latest developments, whether that is on hospital admissions, whether it is on the contact tracing strategy, the testing regime, we're feeding in our knowledge and experience both from a local level and in terms of the the area that we cover in the Shadow Cabinet.”

It is understood key shadow cabinet members such as Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth and Shadow Chancellor Anneleise Dodds take part, as well as Sir Keir, with experts briefing politicians and foreign leaders at times sharing their experiences.

Ms Reeves, who sits on Sir Keir’s frontbench as the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “So for example, I've been doing a lot of work looking at how to use British manufacturers to produce the personal protective equipment that people need to work on the frontline.

“And I’ve also been looking at some of the Government's outsourcing contracts where they've handed over vast amounts of taxpayers money to private sector firms, when in many cases that work I believe - and the Labour Party believes - could be much better done at a local level using local expertise.”

Initially the meetings focussed on the health aspect of the pandemic but have also moved to encompass the economy and now the recovery, and are understood to be positioned as a move a Government in waiting would be expected to take.

Ms Reeves spoke about the impact the virus was having on communities in her constituency and on a national level, dismissing that the pandemic was “the great leveller” as some commentators have claimed.

“If you've got a home with a garden and you live with people you love, your experience of lockdown has been very different than if you live on the 10th floor of a block of flats, perhaps with an abusive partner,” she said.

“So those inequalities of circumstance that already exist, and we already knew existed going into this crisis, I think have really come to the fore.

“And people have started thinking much more about the situations in which we live our everyday lives, something that I've been concerned about for some time.”

She added: “When we say we need to build back better, I think it's about addressing those challenges that people face in their everyday lives and helping to make it better.”

It has been suggested the creation of the “hard-wired” daily meetings put Sir Keir in contrast to former leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Sir Keir marked his first 100 days as Labour leader earlier in the month, and Ms Reeves said there had been a clear shift in the party.

She said: “I very much welcome the change that we've seen in approach under Keir Starmer. I think it is a professional approach, it's an approach that's getting results, and I think people can see him as a Prime Minister taking the tough decisions.”

In another marked shift from Mr Corbyn, Ms Reeves said Sir Keir had managed to get a hold on anti-semitism in Labour.

She said: “It should go without saying, but actually it hasn't gone without saying for the last few years, Keir has got a grip of anti-semitism in our party, and for a party that is a party of equality and equal rights and anti racism, to have anti-semitism as a stain on our party was a deep shame for all of us, whatever background, religion, or no religion you come from.

“To have anti-semitism in your party was a cause of huge shame for very many of us and Keir Starmer has got to grips with with tha, and that is very much welcome.

“But also, I think what people have seen of Keir, particularly [at] Prime Minister's Questions, is somebody who is forensically on top of the detail, who will hold the Prime Minister to account.

“We'll ask the challenging questions that the country wants answers to.”

She added: “So I think there has been a big shift under Keir Starmer’s leadership, you see it with a brand new team that he's got around him, [a] different focus and emphasis, [a] different way of doing politics, and it’s one that I think much better chimes with the country.”

She said: “I've been a Labour Party MP now for 10 years, and in all of those years we've been in opposition.

“I've had wins and things I've achieved at a local level and national level, but I know unless Labour is in government, the things that I came into politics to deliver for the community that I serve won't be possible.”

- To hear the full interview, listen to Pod's Own Country here.