Labour could play it safe with Brussels on financial services. Or it could stir up treason.

Labour’s wannabe finance minister Rachel Reeves, set to take over the helm of the Treasury on July 4 if polls are correct, has made it clear she wants to improve the trading relationship with the EU.

But Brussels won’t let that happen immediately.

So Reeves will have a choice: be patient and put the hours in to get the bloc on side. Or, take the nuclear option: revive Brexit’s infamous “cherry picking” approach and plump for some side deals with Britain-friendly countries.

To date, Brussels has been remarkably united in batting back U.K. overtures to improve terms — since Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal failed to include financial services.

The City has been almost entirely shut out of EU markets, but the mood has improved recently and both sides expect a Labour government would try and smooth things over further. Still, it’s unlikely to get better fast for the City of London.

“It’s incremental steps,” said one European diplomat, granted anonymity to speak freely.

The politics and the power in Brussels may be stacked against Reeves winning many tangible improvements.

The U.K.’s likely move towards a center-left government comes at a time when the EU is heading in a more protectionist direction, focused on building up its own internal financial markets and erecting trade barriers to better protect an electorate swinging toward the far-right.

And on financial services, the European Commission holds the whip hand, meaning it decides unilaterally in each area of finance whether to allow the U.K. access. Only London’s clearinghouses currently benefit....

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