Spear’s Review

The first female chancellor in the Treasury’s 800-year history, Rachel Reeves was central to Sir Keir Starmer’s 2024 electoral campaign, preaching a message of sound management of the economy and a new ‘fiscal lock’ law announced in the King’s Speech. 

After studying philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford – where, she once revealed, her contemporaries gave her a framed portrait of Gordon Brown because of ‘how much I loved the Treasury’ – Reeves cut her teeth as an economist working at the Bank of England and in the mortgages team of HBOS.

In the driver’s seat as chancellor, the MP for Leeds West and Pudsey has introduced tax reforms affecting non-doms, private schools and private equity executives. In October 2024, the budget she presented was the largest tax-raising event since 1993, reportedly prompting many UHNW to leave the UK. Many in the world of private wealth are still wondering: how much further could she and her colleagues go?

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