To Opposition MPs, she’s “Rachel from Accounts”.
However in addition to being accused of embellishing her CV, she’s now being challenged about her personal accounts – her bills claims.
The chancellor has been accused of being concerned in an “expenses scandal” when she labored at Halifax Financial institution of Scotland (HBOS).
It is claimed she spent a whole bunch of kilos on purses, earrings, wine, taxis, a Christmas get together and – sure – even fragrance.
They’re the kind of allegations that do not seem to go the odor take a look at, although she insists she wasn’t conscious of an investigation and wasn’t interviewed.
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Reeves must be ready for additional media scrutiny. Pic: PA
Not surprisingly, nonetheless, Kemi Badenoch is demanding she comes clear “not just about her CV but about the circumstances in which she left HBOS”.
Her solicitor says his “clear understanding at the time” was that Ms Reeves left on good phrases, stored her firm automobile and different advantages for six months and was given a “favourable reference”.
“Absolutely no allegations of wrongdoing or misconduct were mentioned by the HBOS HR team during this process,” insists David Sorenson of Leeds-based Morrish Solicitors.
And a former HR boss at HBOS, Jayne Wayper, additionally insists: “I do not recognise any of the accusations or claims that have been made against Rachel Reeves.”
All this comes on prime of extra “CV-gate” allegations, suggesting “Rachel from Accounts” is much less “Rachel from the Bank of England” and extra “Rachel from HBOS” than she claimed.
It has been fairly a day for Ms Reeves. It is her forty sixth birthday. That is good.
New figures confirmed the economic system grew barely on the finish of final yr. That was a aid.
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1:02
‘I’m not happy with the extent of progress’
However the newest accusations imply MPs are as soon as once more questioning whether or not she’ll survive Sir Keir Starmer’s first huge reshuffle, within the spring or summer time. Not good.
We would already realized that “Rachel from Economics” was additionally “Rachel from Retail Banking”, “Rachel from IT” and “Rachel from Administration”.
This time it is claimed she exaggerated how lengthy she spent on the Financial institution of England. Now it is getting much more complicated.
The chancellor initially claimed she labored on the Financial institution of England for “the best part of a decade”, then she mentioned it was from September 2000 till December 2006.
Now it is emerged she left the Financial institution in March 2006, after she was photographed with HBOS colleagues at a Council of Mortgage Lenders lunch in March 2006. Whoops!
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To date, the chancellor hasn’t needed to wave goodbye to Downing Avenue. Pic: PA
Political opponents – and a few Labour MPs too – are an unforgiving lot and as soon as once more the lady who likes to be considered an “iron chancellor”, within the Gordon Brown mould, is wanting badly tarnished once more.
Her huge downside is that she has always boasted about how her time as a Financial institution of England economist and her banking expertise means voters can belief her with the nation’s funds.
That results in a second downside. If all the pieces within the economic system was going swimmingly proper now it could be simpler for her to dismiss the accusations about her CV and her bills.
However critics declare the economic system is heading for the rocks and that she’s accountable for lots of the authorities’s issues: winter gasoline funds, nationwide insurance coverage will increase, inheritance tax on farmers, and so forth.
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3:40
PM abandons Buckinghamshire go to after protesting farmers arrive
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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is standing by his chancellor – no less than for now. Pic: PA
So after a brand new yr fightback after a earlier bout of hypothesis about her future, the stability sheet for “Rachel from Accounts” is wanting fairly adverse once more.
In any other case, regardless of Sir Keir’s backing for her to this point, she’ll be “Rachel for the Reshuffle”. Or worse.
