Rachel Reeves’ is under pressure after it was reported she was investigated in an expenses scandal.
The BBC said Ms Reeves was one of three people investigated while working for the Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) before entering parliament for using her expenses to “fund a lifestyle” with allegedly inappropriate spending on dinners, events, taxis and gifts, including for each other.
The BBC also made fresh claims about the way Ms Reeves has “exaggerated” her CV.
It said Ms Reeves had worked for the Bank of England for nine months less than it was stated on her LinkedIn profile, for a total of five and half years, not for a decade, as she has previously claimed.
The BBC also said that Ms Reeves worked as a manager in the HBOS complaints department, not as an economist, as she has also claimed on her CV.
The reports are a major embarrassment and are likely to lead to more questions over whether she can continue as chancellor.
Sir Keir Starmer backed Ms Reeves on Thursday, with the prime minister’s official spokesman saying he has no concerns about the chancellor’s conduct.
“The chancellor is working with the whole cabinet to deliver the Plan for Change,” Sir Keir’s spokesman said.
Responding to criticism of her use of expenses while working at HBOS, a spokesman for Ms Reeves said she left the bank in 2009 “on good terms”.
The spokesman added: “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.
“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’ former HR business partner, have corroborated this account.”
She was also backed by a former senior manager at the bank, ex-HR business partner Jayne Wayper, who said she did “not recognise any of the accusations or claims that have been made against Rachel Reeves”.
“my role, I would have been made aware of any investigation which concluded, there was case to answer,” Ms Wayper said.
She added: “I would have been required to organise and oversee a disciplinary process . This did not happen. Under the Financial Conduct Authority’s rules, any such accusations would have to have been properly investigated.”
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’ 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 claims that she worked at the Bank of England from September 2000 to December 2006, despite publicly claiming to have worked there for a decade.
But the BBC also reported Ms Reeves had left the Bank of England by March 2006, when she began working for Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) in West Yorkshire, meaning she stopped working there nine months earlier than her LinkedIn profile states.
The broadcaster unearthed a photograph of the chancellor in March 2006 alongside other HBOS staff at an annual lunch for the Council of Mortgage Lenders. A former HR lead told the BBC she recalled Ms Reeves’ first day at HBOS, and that it was in March 2006.
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.
A spokesperson for Ms Reeves said: “As Rachel said on Good Morning Britain a couple of weeks ago when she was asked, she worked as an economist at the Bank of England between 2000 and 2006, including over a year at the British Embassy in Washington working in the economics section, and then she worked at HBOS from 2006 to 2009. She’s proud of the jobs she did and experience she gained before becoming an MP.”
The LinkedIn profile has since been updated.
Kemi Badenoch said the BBC’s 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 truth behind the claim.
In an interview with Stylist magazine in 2021, in which she claimed to have spent a decade there, critics raised questions about the suggestion given the length of time listed publicly on her LinkedIn profile.
She also made a similar claim at the Labour Party Business Conference last February, 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.”
The revelation about her starting at HBOS in March 2006 suggests she worked for the Bank of England for five and a half years.
Ms Reeves LinkedIn profile lists her work history from 2000 onwards.
It says she worked in three areas of the Bank over the six-year period she was employed there: its international economic analysis division, then at the British Embassy in Washington DC in the second secretary economic division, and finally in the structural economic analysis division.
After this it lists her time working for Halifax Bank of Scotland, then her political career following her election in 2010.
She has previously been dubbed “Rachel from accounts”, which supporters have described as “misogynistic and deeply unprofessional”, due to allegations she embellished her CV.
