A social media user has claimed that shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves only “briefly” worked at the Bank of England.
They wrote: “When did you work in the Bank of England? My research says you were only there briefly as a graduate hire…. @RachelReevesMP Certainly no true dates your Wikipedia page – all very very vague. Plagiarism again? Buffing a CV?”
Evaluation
Ms Reeves, 45, spent six years working for the Bank of England between 2000 and 2006.
The facts
A LinkedIn page which appears to belong to Ms Reeves says that she worked at the Bank of England between September 2000 and December 2006.
The Bank of England confirmed to the PA news agency that Ms Reeves worked for them during the dates on the LinkedIn page.
This includes a stint with the British Embassy in Washington DC, which was a secondment from the UK’s central bank – and which Ms Reeves talked about in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, in August 2023.
Some of Ms Reeves’s time at the Bank can also be charted through papers she contributed to during her employment there.
In a December 2005 paper she is listed as part of the Bank’s structural economic analysis division, which matches the detail on the LinkedIn page.
She is also thanked for her contributions to a December 2001 speech by Charlie Bean, who was the Bank of England’s chief economist at the time.
Labour’s plans require no more tax rises, Reeves says
Labour will not announce any additional tax rises during the election campaign, Rachel Reeves has said.
The shadow chancellor also ruled out holding an emergency budget if Labour wins the election, saying she would not hold a fiscal event without a forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility – a process that would take 10 weeks.
Her statement means that a Labour government would be unlikely to bring forward a budget until at least September, given the timings of parliamentary recesses.
Standing in front of two jet engines at Rolls-Royce’s plant in Derby on Tuesday, Ms Reeves said her party’s proposals mean there are “no additional tax rises needed beyond the ones I have set out”.
The increases already proposed include closing “loopholes” in the windfall tax on oil and gas companies and the Government’s plans to tax non-doms, and making private schools subject to VAT.
Ms Reeves also hinted that she would like to cut income tax and national insurance, but would not do so without being able to say how she would fund those cuts.
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