New details of Chancellor Rachel Reeves‘s banking career can be revealed after claims she worked as an economist were removed from her CV.
Sources have told the i that rather than being an economist, she worked in customer relations and mortgages.
During the period at the bank from December 2006, her job titles were “head of planning, customer relations” and “head of customers, mortgages”.
Her previous position as an economist at the Bank of England remains on her LinkedIn profile.
Reeves has faced scrutiny over her job history after her LinkedIn social media profile was recently edited to remove her “economist” role at the “Bank of Scotland” and changed to a position in “Retail Banking” at “Halifax”.
Halifax is part of the HBOS group, which also includes the Bank of Scotland and is ultimately owned by Lloyds Banking Group.
Banking experts have told i that although these were “fairly senior roles” at one of Britain’s largest banks it was unlikely these roles involved providing Halifax with economic advice.
The right-wing political blog Guido Fawkes first raised questions about Reeves’s jobs in banking claiming she had overstated the nature of her “economist” jobs at HBOS. It was then noticed her LinkedIn profile had recently been changed to remove her economist position. Opposition MPs have accused Ms Reeves of over-stating her credentials.
However, a source close to Ms Reeves explained to i the change was as a result of a one of her staff incorrectly listing the job description on the business networking site.
Pressure has been building for Reeves to answer questions on her employment history including the six years she spent working at the Bank of England between 2000-2006 before she joined Halifax. The Conservatives have demanded she “publish a full, unedited CV” that details exactly how long she worked at various institutions and exactly what role she had.
The Conservative’s shadow Paymaster General Richard Holden has written to the Chancellor with a number of questions about her career stating that “standards in public life are upheld by rigorous accountability and transparency”.
Holden told i: “The public deserves answers rather than silence from the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as serious questions have been raised over her honesty.”
One senior banking headhunter told the i that while Reeves’s jobs at Halifax were not strictly “economist” roles, anyone fulfilling them would “require a strong grasp of economic principles”.
Richard Werner, Professor in Economics and Banking in the University of Winchester Business School, added: “In my assessment, these two roles are below the level of management board and board of directors.
“Furthermore, none of the roles, from a regulatory perspective, are part of the ‘senior management regime. I do not think economics training is required for these, especially since they have to do with dealing with customers.”
Professor Werner added that the head of planning, customer relations role “seems to be a senior role within the customer relations department, as head of planning of customer relations”.
He said the head of customers, mortgages job “seems to be a role within the mortgages department, as head of the customers’-facing sub-division”.
Ross Sailes, an associate director at leading executive headhunters Morgan McKinley said of Reeves’s positions: “These are fairly senior roles, but not that senior in the grand scheme of banking. These roles would be some levels below the senior executive team.
“These roles are not handed to people without a high level of qualification.”
Alistair Milne, Professor of Financial Economics at Loughborough Business School, added that given that mortgages represent around 50 per cent of a bank’s assets these roles “are certainly important”.
“In a retail bank, these roles would be close to board level,” said Professor Milne. “They wouldn’t be on the board, but they would have access to board members.”
How the controversy of Rachel Reeves’s CV unfolded
Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her first Budget at the end of October (Photo: Maja Smiejkowska/Reuters)
Chancellor Rachel Reeves presents her employment background on networking website LinkedIn, initially stating that she worked as an economist at the Bank of England between September 2000 and December 2006.
Following the role at the Bank of England she initially listed another economist role at the Bank of Scotland until December 2009.
However, on 24 October inaccuracies in the Chancellor’s CV were first revealed by online political blog Guido Fawkes, which noted Ms Reeves’s claim that she’d worked as an “economist” at the Bank of Scotland was incorrect.
Then, on Friday 15 November, it was spotted that the Chancellor had edited her CV by removing her “economist at the Bank of Scotland” entry and replacing it with “retail banking” at Halifax, part of the HBOS group, which is ultimately owned by Lloyds Banking Group.
On Monday 25 November, questions were also raised over how long the Chancellor spent working at the Bank of England after there appeared to be discrepancies between her claim in a 2021 interview with Stylist magazine and her personal LinkedIn profile.
While the Labour MP states she worked at the Bank of England for six years on the online app, Reeves told the feminist magazine that she had been at the institution for “a decade”.
Former Conservative adviser Henry Newman also claimed that Reeves spent one of those six years at the Bank of England at the London School of Economics on a master degree course.
On Tuesday, shadow Paymaster General Richard Holden wrote his letter to the Chancellor, calling on her to respond to the “incredibly serious” claims against her.
Downing Street has refused to confirm whether or not Reeves followed ministerial integrity rules after editing her online CV.
In his letter to the Chancellor, Holden asked how long she worked at the Bank of England and what her job title was at the institution. He also asked her to confirm how long she worked at HBOS and what her job title was and why she left HBOS.
Former Labour minister Siôn Simon has spoken out to defend Reeves. He told LBC: “It’s much better to have worked in retail banking than to have been an economist at the bank. It was a much more interesting and challenging thing to have done than just to have been an economist for 10 years.”
Asked whether the Chancellor had exaggerated her CV, No 10 defended her record in office.
“This is someone who on coming into office looked under the bonnet and exposed a £22bn 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,” a No 10 spokeswoman said.
Pressed about Sir Keir Starmer’s thoughts on the reports about his Chancellor’s CV, the spokeswoman added: “He is very clear that this is a Chancellor that has been straight with the public about the state of the public finances and what is necessary to restore financial stability. That is most important.”
Reeves’s office and her previous employer HBOS declined to comment.
