In a low-key interview over the summer, Labour’s Stella Creasy declared herself a member of the reality based community. She told Patrick Wintour of the Guardian that the main focus of an incoming Labour government must be value for money. Therefore they would have to “reassess every single item of departmental public spending in response to mounting government debt and the pressure on public resources.” The interview won her plaudits from the likes of ConservativeHome and the Taxpayers’ Alliance.

The Zero Base Policy is an idea advocated by the Adam Smith Institute and they’re delighted that it’s gaining traction in Parliament:

“It’s great to see that Stella Creasy has been reading some Adam Smith Institute publications. Now that she’s read Zero Base Policy, she should try Madsen Pirie’s “Economics Made Simple” and Eamonn Butler’s “The Alternative Manifesto” to learn that you can’t spend your way out of a recession.”

While you might think all this praise from sensible types will blot Stella’s copy book in the eyes of her deluded Labour colleagues, quite the opposite has happened. Instead, LabourList readers have named her as their MP of the Month–  not only for her campaign against Wonga, but as the site notes, her Zero Base work too. There is a lesson for Labour there…