Rachel Reeves

The Right Honourable
Rachel Reeves
MP
The Right Honourable Rachel Reeves MP
	Official portrait, 2024
Chancellor of the Exchequer
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 5 July 2024
Prime Minister	Keir Starmer
Preceded by	Jeremy Hunt
Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee
	In office; 12 July 2017 – 7 April 2020
Preceded by	Iain Wright
Succeeded by	Darren Jones
2021–2024
Shadow portfolios
2021–2024	Chancellor of the Exchequer
2020–2021	Duchy of Lancaster
2020–2021	Cabinet Office
2013–2015	Work and Pensions
2011–2013	Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Member of Parliament; for Leeds West and Pudsey; Leeds West (2010–2024)
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 6 May 2010
Preceded by	John Battle
Majority	12,392 (32.2%)
Personal details
Born	Rachel Jane Reeves; 13 February 1979 (age 45); Lewisham, London, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Nicholas Joicey
Relations	Ellie Reeves (sister)
Children	2
Residence(s)	11 Downing Street, London
Alma mater	New College, Oxford (BA); London School of Economics (MSc);
Signature
Website	www.rachelreevesmp.co.uk
	Rachel Reeves' voice Reeves outlining 'modern supply-side economics' in 2022

Rachel Jane Reeves (born 13 February 1979) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds West and Pudsey, formerly Leeds West, since 2010. She previously held various shadow ministerial and shadow cabinet portfolios between 2010 and 2015 and from 2020 to 2024.

Born in Lewisham, Reeves attended Cator Park School for Girls. She studied PPE at the University of Oxford before obtaining a Master of Science degree from the London School of Economics. She joined the Labour Party at the age of sixteen, and later worked in the Bank of England. After two unsuccessful attempts to be elected to the House of Commons, she was elected as the MP for the seat of Leeds West at the 2010 general election. She endorsed Ed Miliband in the 2010 Labour leadership election and joined his frontbench in October 2010 as Shadow Pensions Minister. She was promoted to the shadow cabinet as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2011, and later became Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in 2013. She was reelected to Parliament at the 2015 general election, and following Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour leader the same year, she left the shadow cabinet and returned to the backbenches.

On the backbenches, she served as chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee from 2017 to 2020. She was reelected in both the 2017 and 2019 general elections. In 2020 she returned to the shadow cabinet as Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster under new leader Keir Starmer. In the May 2021 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, she was promoted to Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. As Shadow Chancellor, Reeves campaigned on a platform that advocated modern supply-side economics, an economic policy that focuses on improving economic growth by boosting labour supply and raising productivity, while reducing inequality and environmental damage. She proposed no re-introduction of a cap on bankers' bonuses, and a plan to nationalise the railways.

Following Labour's victory in the 2024 general election and the subsequent formation of the Starmer ministry, Reeves was appointed to the government as Chancellor of the Exchequer, becoming the first woman to hold the office in its over 800-year history. Early into her tenure, she established the National Wealth Fund, scrapped certain winter fuel payments, cancelled several infrastructure projects, and announced numerous public sector pay rises. She presented her first budget in October 2024, where she introduced the largest tax rises at a budget since 1993.