Reeves says she was ‘never questioned’ over HBOS expenses
The BBC has reported the Chancellor was subject to an expenses investigation while working at the bank.
Rachel Reeves has defended herself from claims she was the subject of an investigation into her expenses while working at a retail bank, saying she was “never questioned” on the issue.
In her first comments since the BBC reported she had been subject to an investigation while working at Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), the Chancellor said: “No-one ever raised any concerns about my expenses.”
Insisting her expenses had been submitted and approved “in the proper way”, she added: “I was never questioned, never asked to pay back any expenses.”
Ms Reeves worked at the bank between 2006 and 2009.
On Thursday, the BBC reported that Ms Reeves and two colleagues at HBOS had been investigated over their expenses, with an initial inquiry suggesting they appeared to have broken the bank’s rules, but it was unclear what happened next.
It is alleged that Ms Reeves was one of a number of HBOS staff who made “excessive” purchases such as handbags and perfume for their colleagues using “motivation cards” provided by the bank to allow employees to reward high-performing staff, as well as expenses claims.
In a statement, former HBOS HR manager Jane Wayper, who left the bank in 2008 according to her LinkedIn page, said she did not “recognise” any of the claims.
Ms Wayper said; “I would have been made aware of any investigation which concluded there was a case to answer. I would have been required to organise and oversee a disciplinary process.
“This did not happen.”
David Sorensen, a lawyer who acted for the Chancellor as she left HBOS, said she was not subject to “allegations of wrongdoing or misconduct” during her career at the bank.
He was responsible for overseeing “a standard-style agreement adopted by the company when a mutually agreed exit was made during the bank’s restructure”.
Answering questions during a visit to a building site in Nottinghamshire, the Chancellor also declined to be drawn on claims she had exaggerated the length of time she worked at the Bank of England prior to joining HBOS.
The BBC reported that Ms Reeves’s LinkedIn profile listed her time at the Bank of England as lasting for months longer than it did.
Ms Reeves’s team said the inaccuracy was due to an administrative error by the member of staff who set up the profile.
Asked about the claims on Thursday, the Chancellor said she was “proud of the work that I did before I became an MP” but people would “judge me on the job I’m doing now as Chancellor of the Exchequer”.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said on Friday that Ms Reeves has “serious questions” to answer and that the Tories would hold the Government to account.
