Rachel Reeves, the UK’s first female finance minister, is a former children’s chess champion and Bank of England economist who is committed to growing the country’s economy while demonstrating strong budgetary discipline.
Reeves, 45, becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer after his centre-left Labor Party won Thursday’s UK general election by a landslide, ending 14 years of Conservative rule. right-wing.
“It is the honor of my life to have been appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer,” Reeves wrote on social media platform X following his appointment by new Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“To every young woman and woman reading this, show them today that there should be no limits to your ambitions.”
The Labor Party has placed the economy at the center of its election manifesto, targeting growth and wealth creation as key priorities in government, although its emphasis on the latter is not typically associated with the party’s traditionally left-wing policies.
“Economic growth was the Labor Party’s mission,” Reeves added on Friday.
“Now it is a national mission. Let’s go to work,” said the married mother of two.
‘Iron Chancellor’
Reeves recently told company bosses that Labor had become “the natural party of British business”, adding that the party would show “iron discipline” over public finances.
The comments drew comparisons to the “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister.
Unlike conservative leader Thatcher, who privatized key sectors after becoming prime minister in 1979, Reeves wants a form of renationalization, particularly in the energy sector, taking inspiration from the policy enacted by US President Joe Biden.
Labor has committed to creating Great British Energy, a public company that would lead funding, alongside the private sector, for the “green” transition away from fossil fuels.
James Wood, senior associate professor of political economy at the University of Cambridge, said Labor and Reeves were seeking a “responsible” approach to the public purse.
“When she talks about being an ironclad chancellor, I think what she means is: we’re going to balance the books and we’re going to be responsible – and we’re going to try to make the British economy work… responsibly,” he told AFP.
London-born Reeves tapped into public anger at Sunak’s predecessor Liz Truss, whose unfunded 2022 mini-budget sent the pound crashing and sent mortgage rates soaring, worsening the cost of living crisis.
“They want to move away from fiscal irresponsibility by not making big promises about spending that they can’t deliver on,” Wood added.
Banking career
Reeves, whose parents were teachers, is no stranger to outmaneuvering opponents.
She became British women’s chess champion at the age of 14 before studying philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University, followed by a master’s degree at the London School of Economics.
After graduating, he worked as an economist for a decade, first at the Bank of England, before moving to the private sector.
While working for British retail bank HBOS, the global financial crisis hit in 2008, causing her employer to receive a huge bailout, along with other creditors, from Gordon Brown’s Labor government.
In 2010, when the Conservatives came to power in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, Reeves was elected Labor MP for Leeds West, in the north of England.
Eleven years later, Starmer appointed her as the Labor Party’s finance spokeswoman. Her sister Ellie Reeves is also a Labor MP.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
This story originally appeared on Ndtv.com read the full story
