Rachel Reeves is under mounting pressure over allegations she used company expenses in a former job to buy handbags, perfume, earrings and wine for colleagues, and exaggerated her Bank of England experience on her CV.
Before entering parliament, the chancellor was one of three employees investigated by Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) for using her expenses to “fund a lifestyle” with inappropriate spending on dinners, events, taxis and gifts, the BBC has alleged.
The broadcaster uncovered documents it said showed Ms Reeves was accused of spending hundreds of pounds on the items, including one gift for her boss. Concerns were reportedly raised about her spending on taxis and on a Christmas party, with one whistleblower believing it to be excessive, the BBC said.
A former colleague told the BBC Ms Reeves was among senior managers who had “a very cavalier attitude regarding the budget in the department”, and cited a leaving meal for a colleague costing more than £400 for which Ms Reeves used a company spending card.
The BBC investigation also found Ms Reeves stopped working for the Bank of England nine months earlier than it stated on her LinkedIn profile.
The reports are a major embarrassment and are likely to lead to more questions over whether she can continue as chancellor, as the economy struggles under the impact of her Budget.
But Ms Reeves’s spokesperson said she did not recall being investigated by HBOS or facing questions over her expenses.
Sir Keir Starmer backed Ms Reeves, and his official spokesperson said the prime minister has no concerns about her conduct.
But Labour grandee Dame Siobhain McDonagh said there are “questions to be asked” even as she described the chancellor as “one of the most hardworking, honest politicians that I have ever met”.
She said: “We’ve got to be sure about what happened with the expenses scandal. As far as I’m aware she absolutely denies that she was approached by anybody about the expenses scandal. So I think there’s still questions to be asked about what is going on and we’ll see what happens.”
A spokesperson for Ms Reeves said she left HBOS in 2009 “on good terms”.
“Rachel is proud of the work she did at HBOS and the teams that she led. It is 16 years since she left the bank and the first time she was made aware of these claims was when approached by journalists,” they said.
“She was not aware of an investigation, nor was she interviewed, and she did not face any disciplinary action on this or any other matters. All expenses were submitted and signed off in the proper way.
“Several former colleagues from her time at the bank, including HBOS’s former HR business partner, have corroborated this account.”
She was also backed by a former senior manager at the bank, former HR business partner Jane Wayper, who said she did “not recognise any of the accusations or claims that have been made against Rachel Reeves”.
“I would have been made aware of any investigation which concluded there was case to answer,” Ms Wayper said.
Ms Wayper said the company’s expenses policy at the time allowed colleagues to buy each other birthday and Christmas presents, “indeed, staff were encouraged to do so for their teams”.
She said: “Rachel travelled extensively in her role using the train and then taxis primarily to get to sites. She was also on a relocation package having moved to Leeds from London and was able to claim all travel expenses for travel to London.
“There was an extensive oversight of all expenses policies. Receipts were signed off by line managers, but they were also reviewed regularly by internal audit. That was standard practice.
“I cannot speak for the motivations behind those who have been making these claims about Rachel Reeves. However, I do not recognise them and understand she left the bank on good terms.”
And David Sorensen, Ms Reeves’s lawyer at the time who handled her departure from HBOS when it was acquired, said “absolutely no allegations of wrongdoing or misconduct were mentioned by the HBOS HR team during this process”.
He added: “My clear understanding at the time was that my client, who was in a senior role, left on good terms when HBOS plc was acquired in 2009, as evidenced by the payments made to her, her retention of her company car and other benefits for a six-month period, and a favourable reference.”
The chancellor’s LinkedIn profile claimed she worked at the Bank of England from September 2000 to December 2006 – although she has previously publicly claimed to have worked there for a decade.
The BBC said Ms Reeves had in fact left the Bank of England by March 2006, when she began working for HBOS.
The chancellor’s team said the error was due to an administrative mistake by one of her staff and that Ms Reeves had not seen the LinkedIn page before it was published. Her LinkedIn page was updated on Thursday following the BBC report.
Kemi Badenoch said the BBC investigation raises “serious questions” for Ms Reeves. The Tory leader added: “Keir Starmer said ‘restoring trust in politics is the greatest test of our era’. Until she comes clean, not just about her CV but about the circumstances in which she left HBOS, no one will take him seriously.”
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice added: “Rachel Reeves cannot even manage her own CV let alone manage the economy.”
Ms Reeves has repeatedly claimed to have worked for the Bank of England for a decade, or the best part of a decade, but questions were raised in November about the veracity of the claim.
She made the claim in an interview with Stylist magazine in 2021, at the Labour Party Business Conference last February, at a CEO summit in July 2022, and in a video published on her Facebook page in the same month.
A document published by Labour last year states: “Rachel Reeves spent most of the first decade of her career at the Bank of England; she understands the importance of financial and monetary stability to Britain’s economic success.”
