Rachel Reeves
Rachel Jane Reeves (born 13 February 1979) is a British politician serving as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she has been the Member of Parliament for Leeds West since the 2010 general election.
In Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet, she served as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2011 to 2013 and Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2013 to 2015. Reeves became a backbencher following Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour leader in 2015, and served as chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee from 2017 to 2020. After Keir Starmer was elected as leader in 2020, he appointed her Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, shadowing Michael Gove. In May 2021, Reeves replaced Anneliese Dodds as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. In this role she has adhered to "modern supply-side economics", an economic policy which focuses on infrastructure, education and labour supply by rejecting tax cuts and deregulation: in 2023 she coined the term "securonomics" to refer to her version of this economic policy.
Quotes
[edit]- I guess you could say that, moving from banking, I am one of the few people entering politics to be going to a more popular profession.
- After her selection as prospective parliamentary candidate for Leeds West, as cited by Allegra Stratton in "Waiting in the wings, the new generation hoping to revitalise the Labour party", The Guardian (19 March 2009)
- Reeves had previously worked for the Bank of England and HBOS.
- Until this government's formation just over a year ago, every generation of women has enjoyed greater opportunity. My great-grandmother was a cockle picker on the south coast of Wales, my grandmother worked in shoe factories, and my mother is a primary school teacher. But this expectation that women of the next generation will do better than the one before is now fundamentally threatened.
- "Don't turn back the clock for women", The Guardian (8 June 2011)
- Unless you take swift action in the wake of a financial crisis the problems stick around for 10 to 20 years.
- "Newcomer fears pain of Tory austerity", Financial Times (24 November 2011)
