Feature
KATE FERGUSON
Rachel Reeves is the first woman to ever deliver the Budget – so meet the Beyonce fan and chess whizz kid making history
Rachel Reeves is smashing the last glass ceiling in politics
THERE have been Chancellors for nearly 1,000 years - but Rachel Reeves will make history this week by becoming the first woman to deliver Britain’s Budget.
She will join Sir Winston Churchill, William Gladstone and Thomas Cromwell in the pantheon of political giants who have held the nation’s finances in their hands.
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It was not that long ago when Labour openly laughed at the idea of having a female Chancellor.
The bushy eyebrowed ex Chancellor Dennis Healey told a newspaper in 1997: “Being Chancellor is not a woman’s job.
“There’s a difference between the sexes, and people who don’t know that don’t know what people are like with their clothes off. So there.”
But if running the economy was man’s work, Mr Healey made a right pig's ear of it.
He was Chancellor when Britain went bust in 1976 and had to go cap in hand to the IMF for a giant bailout.
It was a moment of national humiliation that shredded Labour’s economic credibility for decades.
Rachel, 45, grew up in Lewisham in south London and attended her local comprehensive school. Her mum and dad were both teachers.
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A chess whizz kid, she sailed through school and studied PPE at Oxford University before working at the Bank of England.
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Famously branded “boring snoring” by BBC Newsnight editor Ian Katz, Rachel has worked hard to change her image.
She swapped bodycon dresses for sharp work suits, got a bob and dubbed herself the Iron Chancellor in a deliberate nod to Margaret Thatcher.
Image matters in politics.
Earlier this month, Rachel set tongues wagging when she dyed her chestnut hair red.
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Westminster insiders thought she was trying to send a message.
Was she softening her image after being accused of being too gloomy about the nation’s finances? Or doubling down as Britain’s ‘red’ Labour Chancellor?
The Sun on Sunday can reveal the truth is a little duller - but one many women can relate to.
She had only wanted a slight tweak to her colour, and when the hairdresser washed off the dye to reveal the newly ginger locks Rachel immediately did not like it.
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“It was a mistake”, one pal said.
A huge Beyonce fan, Rachel has been in training for her big Budget day by plugging in her airpods and hitting the streets on early morning runs.
Over the years Britain has had some real hellraising Chancellors.
Thomas Cromwell would stop at nothing to find money for his master King Henry VIII.
Those who opposed his decision to dissolve the monasteries and hand the plunder to the King would find themselves at the Tower of London or worse - the scaffold.
The aristocrat Francis Dashwood - a notorious libertine and heavy drinker - became Chancellor in 1780.
But he was ousted within a year after putting taxes up on cider sparking fury among Britain’s booze loving folk.
A lesson perhaps for Rachel as she decides whether to raise alcohol duty or not.
Coincidentally, Budget Day is the only day of the year when Parliament’s strict no-booze rules are ripped up and the Chancellor is allowed to have a tipple.
Ken Clarke was the last Chancellor to enjoy this rule - sipping on a whisky at the Despatch Box.
Benjamin Disraeli opted for a brandy and water, Gladstone had a sherry with a beaten egg in it, while Geoffrey Howe had a Gin & Tonic.
Rachel will go for plain old water on Wednesday.
But while her choice of drink may be dull there will be nothing boring snoring about her Budget.
She will drop a tax bomb on Britain, tear up fiscal rules to go on a borrowing binge to bankroll big building projects.
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It is a seismic shift in politics and a huge gamble from Britain’s first Labour Chancellor in a generation.
Gulp.
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