From chess champ to chancellor, UK's Rachel Reeves plots gambit on growth | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Get the Paper
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Wednesday
July 23, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Get the Paper
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2025
From chess champ to chancellor, UK's Rachel Reeves plots gambit on growth

World+Biz

Reuters
06 July, 2024, 12:50 am
Last modified: 06 July, 2024, 12:54 am

Related News

  • Who's in Keir Starmer's new cabinet?
  • New PM Starmer pledges to rebuild Britain after years of chaos
  • New UK PM Starmer pledges action not words to fix Britain
  • As Europe turns right, UK voters reject Conservative populism
  • Who could get key roles in a UK Labour government?

From chess champ to chancellor, UK's Rachel Reeves plots gambit on growth

A former Bank of England economist, Reeves, 45, was tasked in opposition with mending relations with the business community that were strained under left-wing former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and pitching to voters that the party could be trusted with their money

Reuters
06 July, 2024, 12:50 am
Last modified: 06 July, 2024, 12:54 am
Rachel Reeves arrives in Downing Street on July 5. Photo: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg
Rachel Reeves arrives in Downing Street on July 5. Photo: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg

Rachel Reeves became Britain's first female finance minister on Friday, and the one-time junior chess champion's opening gambit will be to try to spur growth without sacrificing the party's newly minted image of fiscal responsibility.

A former Bank of England economist, Reeves, 45, was tasked in opposition with mending relations with the business community that were strained under left-wing former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and pitching to voters that the party could be trusted with their money.

Appointed as Labour's finance policy chief in 2021 after a tricky start to new prime minister Keir Starmer's leadership, she has become synonymous with his approach of putting pragmatism ahead of ideology, and facing down those on the left who want a fiscally looser approach.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

With Labour's dominant election victory confirmed on Friday morning, she will now have to navigate a tricky fiscal picture and boost growth quickly if promised increases in investment are to be delivered without tax rises.

She said it was the "honour of my life" and a "historic responsibility" to be the first woman to be appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, as Britain's top economics and finance policymaker is titled.

"We've waited a long time to have the chance to serve our country. We have got a credible plan now to deliver the change the country needs. Growing our economy is at the heart of doing that," Reeves told reporters on the sidelines of the party's manifesto launch in Manchester.

"The opportunity to be Britain's first female chancellor of the exchequer - that would give me immense pride, but also give me a huge responsibility: to pass on, to our daughters and our granddaughters, a fairer society. That's what I'm determined to do."

Economic Reality

The inheritance from the Conservatives is far from rosy, with living standards stagnant since 2010, public debt at almost 100% of gross domestic product and taxes at their highest level since just after World War Two.

Sensitive to accusations from Conservatives that the previous Labour governments of Tony Blair and then Gordon Brown spent too much before the party left office in 2010, Reeves has been clear that all spending commitments must be fully funded.

She also has two "iron-clad" fiscal rules: that a Labour government won't borrow for day-to-day spending, and that debt must be falling as a share of the economy by the fifth year of any forecast.

But that doesn't rule out borrowing to invest, and she has said her vision - which she calls "securonomics" - takes inspiration from the policies of U.S. President Joe Biden.

That could see increased investment to shape strategically important markets, echoing the "modern supply-side economics" policies advocated by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Reeves has made political capital from the unfunded spending commitments of former Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss that sparked turmoil in the UK bond market, and has cast Labour in contrast as the party of both business and prudence.

She has said Labour would give the Office for Budget Responsibility additional powers, noting with amusement that Labour Party activists gave the fiscal watchdog a huge round of applause at a party conference.

"The exhaustion of Conservative ideas does not give us the freedom to push through programmes detached from our present economic reality," she told activists in a speech last year.

Reeves started her career at the Bank of England, turning down a job offer from investment bank Goldman Sachs because, she later said, she "believed in public service".

At the BoE she worked on the Japan desk, analysing an economy hobbled by recession with low interest rates and quantitative easing which, she would later, joke resembled Britain in the 2010s.

She was also seconded to the British Embassy in Washington and British bank Halifax/Bank of Scotland (HBOS).

A business source who has dealt with Reeves said it was exciting to have a first female chancellor, and that Reeves was reflective and a good listener.

The source, who declined to be named to be able to speak more freely about party politics, said that Reeves was "earnest in her desire to effect change (and) expert on her understanding of the levers that business and government share" to achieve it.

Next Move

The professional experience and economic outlook that has endeared her to business has, however, alienated her from the left of the Labour party.

Elected as a lawmaker for Leeds West in 2010, she held roles in then-leader Ed Miliband's team covering finance and pension briefs, but was relegated to the backbenches under the leadership of left-winger Corbyn.

She has said it was "very difficult" to have activists shout "Red Tory" (Conservative) at her during a party conference after Corbyn was elected in 2015.

Momentum, a left-wing group formed to support Corbyn's campaign to be leader, expressed scepticism over Reeves' plans, especially the role she envisages for the private sector in fuelling investment.

"Labour now has a once in a generation opportunity to reshape Britain's economy in favour of the many," Momentum co-chair Kate Dove said.

"Concerningly, Rachel Reeves has thus far failed to explain how she will end the austerity policies that have had a catastrophic impact on society."

In the Corbyn years, Reeves maintained a prominence outside of his frontbench team as chair of parliament's business committee before Starmer appointed her as finance chief in 2021.

Born in 1979 in southeast London to Labour-voting - but not especially political - parents, Reeves has a younger sister Ellie who is also a Labour lawmaker.

Rachel Reeves credits her father and a primary school teacher for fuelling an interest in chess that saw her become British girls under-14 chess champion, which she said prepared her well for her career in politics.

"It's about getting you to look ahead; to think strategically and not just tactically," Reeves told the BBC in 2021, "and to think about what your opponent's next move is going to be as well as your own."

Top News

UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves / Britain's first female finance minister / UK election 2024

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Photo: CA Press Wing
    Stronger stance needed on maintaining law and order: Political parties to CA
  • Volunteers collect and gather parts of the wrecked plane from the Milestone School and College grounds on Tuesday, a day after the devastating aircraft crash. Photo: Mehedi Hasan/TBS
    Grief, angst and anger: The unbearable toll of Milestone crash
  • Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain/TBS
    Secretariat protest: 75 injured in police-protester clash over edu adviser's resignation for delaying HSC rescheduling

MOST VIEWED

  • Screengrab/Video collected from Facebook
    CCTV footage shows how Air Force jet nosedived after technical malfunction
  • ISPR clarifies crashed plane was battle aircraft, not training jet
    ISPR clarifies crashed plane was battle aircraft, not training jet
  • The jet plane charred after crash on 21 July at the Milestone school premises. Photo: Mehedi Hasan/TBS
    Milestone plane crash: Death toll rises to 31 as nine more succumb to injuries
  • Students and police clash at Milestone School and College on 22 July 2025. Photo: TBS
    Protesting Milestone students clash with police, besiege law and education advisers
  • Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain/TBS
    Secretariat protest: 75 injured in police-protester clash over edu adviser's resignation for delaying HSC rescheduling
  • Aerial view of the Milestone school premises where the crash took place on 21 July. Photo: Olid Ebna Shah/ TBS
    ‘Why here?’: Concerns expressed over airbase inside city

Related News

  • Who's in Keir Starmer's new cabinet?
  • New PM Starmer pledges to rebuild Britain after years of chaos
  • New UK PM Starmer pledges action not words to fix Britain
  • As Europe turns right, UK voters reject Conservative populism
  • Who could get key roles in a UK Labour government?

Features

Photo: Mehedi Hasan/TBS

Aggrieved nation left with questions as citizens rally to help at burn institute

10h | Panorama
Photo: TBS

Mourning turns into outrage as Milestone students seek truth and justice

4h | Panorama
Illustration: TBS

Uttara, Jatrabari, Savar and more: The killing fields that ran red with July martyrs’ blood

1d | Panorama
Despite all the adversities, girls from the hill districts are consistently pushing the boundaries to earn repute and make the nation proud. Photos: TBS

Ghagra: Where dreams rise from dust for Bangladesh women's football

2d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

What information did the director of the NBPSI give about the admitted patients?

What information did the director of the NBPSI give about the admitted patients?

3h | TBS Today
What is discussed at the Chief Advisor's meeting?

What is discussed at the Chief Advisor's meeting?

3h | TBS Today
Two advisors and press secretary were blocked at Milestone for 8 hours

Two advisors and press secretary were blocked at Milestone for 8 hours

3h | TBS Today
Chief advisor's meeting with 4 parties; what was discussed?

Chief advisor's meeting with 4 parties; what was discussed?

3h | TBS Today
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net