The making of Rachel Reeves

Next week, Rachel Reeves will face the biggest day of her political career when she wins the first budget of a Labor government for more than 14 years.

It is a moment that the 45-year-old chancellor has been preparing for since her student days. She has been involved in Labor politics for decades and, while studying at Oxford, had a photo of Gordon Brown – which she says was bought as a joke by friends – on her desk as a sign of her ideal career ending.

“As a young woman she became involved with many Labor groups,” said a source who has known Reeves for years i.

“She would show up and serve on the committee, but she would not run for election to any of the leadership positions. She built a powerful network but didn’t threaten anyone because she wasn’t after any of the jobs.”

This quiet rise through the Labor ranks – a contrast to her more outgoing Cabinet colleagues such as Wes Straating And Angela Rayner – took a long time.

Instead of taking a job in the party or the trade union movement, Reeves used her training as an economist to find work at the Bank of England.

Dame Sue Owen was her boss in Washington DC when she became the first Bank staff member to be posted to the US capital.

Dame Sue said: “She was immediately very likeable, incredibly smart. She could pick up a fairly complex argument very, very quickly. But she wasn’t a nerd, you know – she was also very social. In some ways she was an ideal kind of diplomat.’

Reeves Despite working in a non-political role she maintained her political edge, Dame Sue said: “She got into politics and she said a career in politics was something she was considering but she didn’t want to go into politics until she had a career. first a good job.

“I think she was very aware that there were people, even people like Gordon Brown, who had only been in politics and she thought that to have any credibility you had to do real work first. “

In Washington she met her future husband, Nick Joicey, then a rising star in the civil service and now the second-highest civil servant at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The couple has two children.

For Reeves, politics has long been a family affair: she has a close bond with her sister Ellie, who sits next to her in the shadow cabinet as leader of the Labor Party and is herself married to someone else. Westminster veteran, Labor peer and former MP John Cryer.

Reeves first stood for Parliament in 2005, aged 26, but suffered two embarrassing defeats in the safe Conservative seat of Bromley & Chislehurst before reaching the House of Commons in 2010 as MP for Leeds West.

In Parliament she shared an office with Michael Dugher, an old friend who was then MP for Barnsley East and now heads the Betting and Gaming Council.

He told it i: “She is very nice in private, but as a politician she is very serious and takes things seriously. She is the product of the belief that if you work hard and play by the rules, you have the ability to go further and higher, and that runs right through her entire political values ​​and attitude.”

Describing the other side she only shows behind closed doors, he added: “She is someone who is great company and a lot of fun. She’s a little more Beyoncé than Taylor Swift in her musical tastes.

“She also likes Ronnie Scott’s (jazz bar in London’s Soho). She also takes motherhood very seriously, so she’s just normal, I would say.”

In public, Reeves shows little of her personality other than talking about her past as a childhood chess champion. She is said to be a keen cook – like Theresa May, another leading female politician known for her serious attitude – but does not usually discuss her family life in the press.

“She is always on guard, always aware, always careful,” said a Labor source. “She’s not joyless – she has good friends and she has a very infectious laugh, but I’ve always felt like she’s very compartmentalized.

“She is very capable and confident, but that is based on hard work.”

Mr Dugher praised her for building bridges between factions of the Labor Party – explaining that she came from the “old right of the party” but was fiercely loyal to Ed Miliband, who put her in his shadow cabinet despite his more left-wing beliefs. .

Other friends saw a harder side to the way she fought internal battles. A source said: “Her background is in Labor First, the old right wing of the Labor Party.

“They were founded in the 80s to defeat the Tankies and the Trots. She stands in that tradition. Being tough is at the core of how she sees politics; she is part of the group that wants to destroy the left.

“She’s not mean, she’s not a criminal, but she’s friends with the criminals.”

The source concluded: “She is exactly what she seems: a very hardworking schoolgirl who takes everything seriously.”

During the Corbyn years, Reeves – unlike Streeting and other Labor centrists – did not spend her time openly battling the left-wing party leadership.

Instead, she turned her efforts to chairing the Commons Business and Energy Select Committee, making a name for herself in the cross-party role that made her one of the most high-profile Labor backbenchers.

She returned to the frontline under Sir Keir Starmer, who made her a Shadow Cabinet Office minister and promoted her to shadow chancellor in 2021.

Although the pair are not close outside politics, they are seen as natural allies at Westminster – a Cabinet colleague said: “Keir’s relationship with Rachel is a partnership based on merit and not based on some sort of marriage of convenience that the party has given them imposed. , like with Ange (Rayner).

“They obviously get along really well. She is the first politician he turns to. Rachel is never in the room when something important is being discussed. And it has become a very instinctive relationship.”

Before and during the general election campaign, Reeves was almost always present at major functions, often forming a trio with Sir Keir and Rayner – although inevitably receiving fewer column inches than her boss or the more flamboyant deputy leader.

Since the election, she has been in the spotlight: within weeks of coming to power, she had to announce the decision to abolish winter fuel payments for most pensioners, sparking angry reactions from many voters and unrest among Labor Members of Parliament.

Tom Watson, former Labor deputy leader, said: “Rachel Reeves gets a lot of criticism from her colleagues, who always try to compare her to the great Labor chancellor of the past.

‘But it’s actually a bit crazy: she’s dealing with a unique mess: a sluggish economy, no one investing and a debt crisis, all in her first 100 days. Ultimately, she will win them over and remind them of our election mantra: stabilize the economy, drive growth and increase productivity.”

Reeves was also drawn into the row over free cabinet gifts when it emerged that a friend, Juliet Rosenfeld, had given her £7,500 worth of clothes.

The chancellor said she accepted the donation because Ms. Rosenfeld knew more about fashion than she did; another friend explained: ‘As part of her perfectionist streak, she clearly thinks about things very carefully in advance, so she has taken advice that a chancellor or someone aspiring to be a chancellor should wear professional-looking trouser suits.

“But she doesn’t like them; she would much rather be back in one of her smart dresses.

Dame Sue Owen said her old protege ‘enjoyed being the first female Chancellor’, despite the brickbats and despite the pressure for a make-or-break budget.

She emphasized that Reeves would benefit from the experience she gained all those years ago: “She’s certainly an economist, and she believes in the supply side, and it’s the growth that she’ll really focus on.” Growth is often declared the Labor government’s first ‘mission’ – the Chancellor holds its destiny in her hands.