By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The new Prime Minister of UK, Keir Starmer has appointed the first female Minister of Finance in the country’s history, following his landslide election victory which ended the 14 years of Conservative government.
Rachel Reeves, 45, becomes chancellor of the exchequer after her centre-left Labour party won the Thursday’s UK general election in which Rishi Sunak failed to secure a second term as British Prime Minister.
“It is the honour of my life to have been appointed chancellor of the exchequer,” Reeves wrote on social media platform X after her appointment on Friday.
“To every young girl and woman reading this, let today show that there should be no limits on your ambitions.”
Labour had put the economy at the heart of its election manifesto, targeting growth and wealth creation as key priorities in government, while its emphasis on the latter is not normally associated with the party’s traditionally leftist policies.
“Economic growth was the Labour Party’s mission,” Reeves added Friday.
“It is now a national mission. Let’s get to work,” said the married mother of two children.
Rachel Reeves, whose parents were teachers became British girls’ chess champion aged 14 before studying philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford, which was followed by a Master’s degree at the London School of Economics.
After graduating, she worked as an economist for a decade, first at the Bank of England before switching to the private sector.
While working for British retail bank HBOS, the global financial crisis struck in 2008, resulting in her employer receiving a huge bailout, along with other lenders, from Gordon Brown’s Labour government.
In 2010, when the Conservatives entered power in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, Reeves was elected a member of parliament under Labour for Leeds West in northern England.
Her sister Ellie Reeves is also a Labour MP.
