Rachel Reeves has been “straight with the public” about Britain’s accounts and “restored financial stability”, No10 has insisted, amid claims the Chancellor exaggerated her CV.
Reports emerged this weekend that Reeves had inflated the length of her service at the Bank of England in a Stylist interview in 2021.
She told the magazine in 2021 that she spent a decade working at the Bank and “loved it”, while her Linkedin page lists a six-year tenure from September 2000 to December 2006, The Telegraph reported.
Similarly, The Times reported Reeves’ team had admitted she worked in retail banking at Halifax, despite claiming she was “an economist” there during her campaign to win her Leeds West seat in 2010, after the Guido Fawkes blog first reported the story last month.
Reeves, Guido reported, worked in a “mundane support department at the bank, according to multiple former colleagues” which looked after admin, IT, small projects and planning.
Retail banking
A Treasury source said: “She worked in retail banking covering various areas drawing on her background as an economist. Her LinkedIn has been updated to reflect that.“
The job is currently described on Reeves’ LinkedIn profile as a “retail banking” role, which she held from 2006 to 2009.
Asked by journalists whether the Prime Minister considered embellishing a CV to be a breach of the ministerial code, a spokeswoman pointed to the Treasury’s political team.
“Obviously those reports relate to time in advance of coming into government, which isn’t for me to speak to,” she said.
But she added: “With regard to the Chancellor, the Prime Minister is very clear that the Chancellor has restored financial stability.”
Reeves ‘straight with public’
She continued: “This is someone who, on coming into office, looked under the bonnet and exposed a £22bn black hole in the public finances, and has been straight with the public about what is necessary to balance the books and restore financial stability in the face of that.”
Pressed about whether Sir Keir Starmer thought Reeves had been clear with the public on her work history, the spokeswoman added: “He is very clear that this is a Chancellor that has been straight with the public about the state of the public finances and what is necessary to restore financial stability. That is most important.”
Quizzed on whether Starmer had a view on Reeves’ descriptions of her own work history, she insisted: “I’ve not asked him about the specific reports.”
Reeves Linkedin profile lists her work history from 2000 onwards, including for the Bank of England in international economic analysis, then at the British Embassy in Washington DC, and finally in the structural economic analysis division.
After this it lists her time working for Halifax Bank of Scotland, then her political career following her election in 2010.