RACHEL Reeves has been challenged to make her employment history clear amid growing allegations that she lied on her CV.
The Chancellor has been facing pressure after she quietly changed her LinkedIn profile to remove a reference to having worked as an economist at Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS). This was also a claim she made during the 2010 General Election, when she told voters she had worked “as an economist … at Halifax Bank of Scotland”.
However, her LinkedIn profile now states that, from 2006-2009, Reeves worked in retail banking for HBOS. The Times reported that she had been “running a small administrative complaints department that also dealt with IT matters”.
Newspapers reports over the weekend further contested Reeves’s claim in an interview with Stylist magazine from 2021 that she had spent a decade at the Bank of England. Reeves’s LinkedIn says this was in fact a six-year period, between 2000 and 2006.
Between 2003-2004, Reeves was also studying for a master’s degree at the London School of Economics, and she was just 27 when she left the Bank of England in 2006, suggesting all her roles were junior positions.
The Conservatives accused Reeves of telling "brazen" lies.
Former Tory chair Richard Holden has now pressured Reeves to make clear her exact work history, saying that allegations of having lied on her CV are “not trivial matters — and leave serious questions”.
“This is equally important as many businesses and working people already feel as if Labour had not been honest with them … I would therefore be grateful for a prompt answer to the following questions:
- 1. Between what years were you employed by the Bank of England?
- 2. What was your job title at the Bank of England?
- 3. Between what years were you employed by HBOS?
- 4. What was your job title at HBOS?
- 5. What was the reason you left HBOS?
- 6. Will you now publish a full, unedited CV?
“The allegations that your CV might not be accurate are incredibly serious and would raise significant concerns about your ability to be honest with the British public, concerns which your Budget has already raised.”
On Monday, No 10 defended Reeves’s record in office.
“The Prime Minister is very clear that the Chancellor has restored financial stability,” a spokesperson said.
They went on: “This is someone who on coming into office looked under the bonnet and exposed a £22 billion 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.”
The Treasury has been approached for comment.
