Who’s Rachel Reeves?

Rachel Reeves has had a bumpy first few months in authorities.

Her tax-hiking Funds prompted criticism from companies and farmers, and regardless of Labour placing a pledge to spice up the economic system on the centre of its plans, development has been sluggish.

Now the chancellor is going through questions on whether or not she exaggerated her expertise on her on-line CV and her use of bills whereas working within the banking sector earlier than she grew to become an MP.

Reeves was born in south-east London in 1979, simply months earlier than Margaret Thatcher grew to become prime minister at a time of immense social and financial change.

She has beforehand informed the NUZTO her mom would tick off gadgets on a financial institution assertion towards receipts whereas sitting on the kitchen desk: “We weren’t poor, however we did not have cash to waste.”

Her dad and mom separated when she was at major faculty, and he or she and youthful sister Ellie, additionally a Labour MP, had been shuttled between separate houses.

Through the faculty holidays, the sisters would spend time with their grandparents within the Northamptonshire city of Kettering.

They might be taken to do the rounds of kin’ homes, who would give them a 20p or 50p piece every. On the finish of their week, they had been taken to the native toy store to decide on their goodies. Whereas Ellie would spend all her money, the younger Rachel would enable herself a smaller deal with and save many of the cash.

A long time later, Chancellor Reeves would say that type of restraint defines her, and he or she has very a lot modelled herself on Gordon Brown’s “prudence” within the lead-up to Labour’s 1997 election win.

Reeves performed chess from an early age, along with her father educating her the important thing strikes. She grew to become a nationwide under-14 champion, and would “quietly thrash” any boys who may suppose they had been in for a straightforward recreation, in response to Ellie.

She has credited chess with educating her “to suppose forward, to plan a method”.

A eager flute participant, she took her music GCSE a 12 months early at Beckenham’s Cator Park Faculty for Ladies, a complete, and would go on to realize 4 A grades at A-level.

Seeing the extent of cuts at her faculty, the place the library had been was a classroom and the sixth type consisted of “two pre-fab huts within the playground”, she has stated she was politicised by her personal expertise of public providers. On the age of 16, she joined the Labour Celebration.

She went on to check Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford College. As a scholar, she would host others earlier than faculty discos, blasting out Future’s Youngster songs and dressing up in her room.

Regardless of her critical manner, colleagues and buddies have instructed the Labour MP’s public persona doesn’t replicate her human facet, together with a loud chortle and a deep love of Beyoncé tracks.

Age: 46

Place of origin: Lewisham, south-east London

Schooling: New School, Oxford and the London Faculty of Economics

Household: Married to Nicholas Joicey, a senior civil servant and former speechwriter to Gordon Brown throughout his time as chancellor. They’ve two youngsters. Her sister is Labour Celebration chair Ellie Reeves.

Parliamentary constituency: Leeds West and Pudsey

After graduating, Reeves took on a job as an economist on the Financial institution of England.

She labored on the central financial institution’s Japan desk, trying on the nation’s makes an attempt to return out of stagnation within the Nineties.

Throughout a secondment to the UK embassy in Washington, she met her future husband Nicholas Joicey, who had hung out as a movie critic for newspapers and as a speechwriter to then-Chancellor Gordon Brown.

Earlier than turning into MP for Leeds West in 2010, Reeves moved to town and hung out working there for the retail arm of Halifax Financial institution of Scotland.

Her profession at HBOS has now come beneath scrutiny, after the NUZTO revealed Reeves and two colleagues had been the topic of an bills probe whereas she was a senior supervisor on the financial institution.

The preliminary stage of the HBOS investigation discovered {that a} whistleblower’s grievance was substantiated, and the three workers appeared to have damaged the principles, in response to a senior supply with direct data of the probe.

The NUZTO has not been capable of set up what the ultimate end result of the investigation was and it may not have concluded.

A spokesman for Reeves stated the chancellor had no data of the investigation, all the time complied with bills guidelines and left the financial institution on good phrases.

Reeves has additionally confronted questions concerning the accuracy of her on-line CV, which the NUZTO discovered exaggerated the size of time she labored on the Financial institution of England.

A spokesman for Reeves confirmed that dates on her LinkedIn had been inaccurate and blamed an administrative error by the crew.

Final 12 months, her LinkedIn profile was additionally modified to explain her function at HBOS as “Retail Banking”.

It had beforehand claimed she labored as an economist on the financial institution, however she as a substitute held a administration function within the financial institution’s buyer relations division, which handled complaints.

Coming into Parliament in 2010, an early mentor on financial coverage was Alistair Darling – the final Labour chancellor, throughout the monetary disaster.

She rapidly rose up the celebration’s ranks, shadowing roles on the Treasury, Work and Pensions, and the Cupboard Workplace.

All through Jeremy Corbyn’s 4 and a half years as Labour chief, she remained on the backbenches as a result of she felt she couldn’t endorse his insurance policies. Known as a “Purple Tory” by some within the celebration, she described this as a “very disagreeable interval” in an interview with the NUZTO’s Nick Robinson.

A former editor of the NUZTO’s Newsnight programme was pressured to concern a written apology to Reeves after calling her “boring loud night breathing” on social media in a publish that was meant to be a non-public message.

Whereas she stated the incident was “deeply humiliating”, her key goal after Sir Keir Starmer appointed her shadow chancellor was to painting Labour as a gradual, pro-business hand on the economic system.

In October 2023, she admitted she “ought to have achieved higher” after it emerged some passages in her guide, The Girls Who Made Fashionable Economics, had been lifted from different sources with out acknowledgment.

She informed the NUZTO some sentences “weren’t correctly referenced” and this might be corrected in future reprints.

Final July, Reeves grew to become the nation’s first feminine chancellor and rapidly confronted what she described as “robust decisions”.

She claimed a “black gap” within the nation’s funds meant winter gasoline funds must be minimize for hundreds of thousands of pensioners and Nationwide Insurance coverage hiked for employers.

Regardless of Labour’s makes an attempt to win over companies throughout the election marketing campaign, many had been disenchanted they bore the brunt of the £40bn in tax rises introduced in her first Funds.

Earlier than successful energy, Reeves promised she would govern with “iron self-discipline” and convey stability to the general public funds, resulting in comparisons with Conservative “Iron Chancellor” Margaret Thatcher.

Now Reeves is beneath strain to ship the financial development promised by her celebration, whereas additionally making certain folks really feel higher off.