Fact check: Rachel Reeves worked for the Bank of England over five years
During her stint with the Bank, Ms Reeves spent some time on secondment to the British Embassy in Washington.
This article was first published in May 2024 and included dates taken from Rachel Reeves’s LinkedIn profile, which the Bank of England had confirmed matched her employment there. It has since transpired that the month Ms Reeves left the Bank was incorrect on LinkedIn: December 2006, rather than her actual final employment date in March 2006. Responding to the discrepancy, the Bank said it had only confirmed the years of the Chancellor’s employment, rather than the exact month she left. The article has been updated to reflect this.
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, 46, spent five-and-a-half 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 March 2006.
The Bank of England confirmed to the PA news agency that Ms Reeves worked for them during the dates on the LinkedIn page. In February 2025, Ms Reeves updated that page after reporting by the BBC found she had left the Bank in March 2006, not December 2006 as stated on the original entry.
Her time at the Bank included 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.
Links
Financial Frictions and the Monetary Transmission Mechanism: Theory, Evidence and Policy Implications (archived)
