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Rachel Reeves, the Labour politician hoping to become Britain’s first female chancellor, said on Sunday she wanted to see “more diversity” in economic decision-making across the board.
Reeves noted that there had never been a female governor of the Bank of England and said economic decisions would be better if they were taken by a greater range of people from different backgrounds.
The shadow chancellor also restated her commitment to “the rock” of fiscal discipline, warning that Labour’s spending plans might have to be curbed if they did not fit the party’s fiscal rules.
She said that also applied to the party’s contentious plan to borrow £28bn a year for green investments — a pledge that she recently pushed back into the second half of the next parliament.
Reeves told Sky’s Sophy Ridge that one of her objectives as a prospective chancellor would be to see “a more diverse range of people making economic policy”.
“We’ve had a chancellor of the exchequer for 800 years — it has never been a woman,” she said. “There has never been a woman governor of the Bank of England either.
“I hope to break that glass ceiling next year and become the first female chancellor of the exchequer in 800 years. And I would use that opportunity and that role to reduce some of those inequalities in society.”
Reeves said that 50 years after Labour’s Barbara Castle introduced the Equal Pay Act, there was still “a 15 per cent gap between what men and women are paid in our economy”.
As chancellor Reeves would be responsible for appointing senior officials at the Bank of England, including proposing a new governor to the monarch. The role is currently held by Andrew Bailey.
She would also choose the four external members of the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee. Of the current nine members of the MPC, which sets interest rates, six are men and three are women.
But Reeves said it was vital to “respect the institutions” and she had no plans to change either the BoE or MPC, arguing that former premier Liz Truss had showed the folly of undermining the bank.
The shadow chancellor, however, told the Financial Times: “I think more diverse teams are good for decision-making. But that’s not just women. Recruitment consultants and panels should look at whether you have different backgrounds and experiences when building teams.”
Reeves was at pains in a Sunday broadcast round to stress the party’s commitment to fiscal discipline at all costs, telling the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “We will not play fast and loose with the public finances.”
Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer, Labour leader, have been criticised by environmentalists for backtracking over a plan to borrow £28bn a year to fund it’s “green prosperity” plan.
Reeves said she was “confident” the party would be able to spend that amount of money in the second half of the next parliament, but said that the party’s “fiscal rules are non-negotiable”.