Rachel Reeves has had a bumpy first few months in government. Her tax-hiking Budget prompted criticism from businesses and farmers, and despite Labour putting a pledge to boost the economy at the centre of its plans, growth has been sluggish. Now the chancellor is facing questions about whether she exaggerated her experience on her online CV and her use of expenses while working in the banking sector before she became an MP.
Reeves was born in south-east London in 1979, just months before Margaret Thatcher became prime minister at a time of immense social and economic change. She has previously told the BBC her mother would tick off items on a bank statement against receipts while sitting at the kitchen table: “We weren’t poor, but we didn’t have money to waste.” Her parents separated when she was at primary school, and she and younger sister Ellie, also a Labour MP, were shuttled between separate homes.
During the school holidays, the sisters would spend time with their grandparents in the Northamptonshire town of Kettering. They would be taken to do the rounds of relatives’ houses, who would give them a 20p or 50p piece each. At the end of their week, they were taken to the local toy shop to choose their goodies. While Ellie would spend all her cash, the young Rachel would allow herself a smaller treat and save most of the money. Decades later, Chancellor Reeves would say that kind of restraint defines her, and she has very much modelled herself on Gordon Brown’s “prudence” in the lead-up to Labour’s 1997 election win.
Reeves played chess from an early age, with her father teaching her the key moves. She became a national under-14 champion, and would “quietly thrash” any boys who might think they were in for an easy game, according to Ellie. She has credited chess with teaching her “to think ahead, to plan a strategy”.
A keen flute player, she took her music GCSE a year early at Beckenham’s Cator Park School for Girls, a comprehensive, and would go on to gain four A grades at A-level. Seeing the extent of cuts at her school, where the library had been turned into a classroom and the sixth form consisted of “two pre-fab huts in the playground”, she has said she was politicised by her own experience of public services. At the age of 16, she joined the Labour Party.
Her first elected office was as a student at Oxford University, where she was popular for throwing discos and dressing up in her room. Colin Firth, the actor, was a contemporary and has spoken about her “magical” parties. Despite her serious demeanor, colleagues and friends have suggested the Labour MP’s public persona does not reflect her human side, including a loud laugh and a deep love of Beyoncé tracks.
Reeves served as shadow chief secretary to the Treasury under Ed Balls, pictured in 2012 visiting a social housing project with other Labour frontbench colleagues, wearing yellow high-vis jackets and red hard hats.
Entering Parliament in 2010, an early mentor on economic policy was Alistair Darling – the last Labour chancellor, during the financial crisis. She quickly rose up the party’s ranks, shadowing roles at the Treasury, Work and Pensions, and the Cabinet Office.
Throughout Jeremy Corbyn’s four and a half years as Labour leader, she remained on the backbenches because she felt she could not endorse his policies. Called a “Red Tory” by some in the party, she described this as a “very unpleasant period” in an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson.
A former editor of the BBC’s Newsnight programme was forced to issue a written apology to Reeves after calling her “boring snoring” on social media in a post that was meant to be a private message. While she said the incident was “deeply humiliating”, her key objective after Sir Keir Starmer appointed her shadow chancellor was to portray Labour as a steady, pro-business hand on the economy.
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