A BBC Question Time guest dubbed the furore around Rachel Reeves’ career a “distraction” from the current “catastrophic situation” we are in.
The chancellor is facing intense scrutiny after the BBC reported her LinkedIn account exaggerated how long she had worked at Bank of England.
Reeves was also allegedly the subject of an expenses probe when she was the senior manager at Halifax Bank of Scotland in the late 2000s, which the chancellor has since said she had no knowledge of.
Prime minister Keir Starmer has stood by his chancellor, telling the media that these issues were from “many years ago”.
But last night, BBC Question Time host Fiona Bruce asked the panel: “Is it ever OK to put things on a CV which are not true?”
Journalist George Monbiot replied: “No, it’s not OK but actually it’s a pretty trivial issue.
“I know it’s going to be kicked around by the media because the media loves this kind of gossip.”
“It’s not the first time [the LinkedIn profile] had to be amended,” Bruce cut in. “And this is the chancellor, the second most important person [in the government].”
“I accept all that, but actually it’s a distraction from the pretty catastrophic situation in which which we find ourselves,” he replied. “We have a chancellor and indeed a prime minister who have no vision at all apart from this thing called ‘growth’, GDP growth.”
Labour have repeatedly pledged to put economic growth at the heart of their government, but Monbiot argued it should not be used as a measure of national welfare.
He said in some ways there is a “direct contradiction” between growth and our welfare, adding: “We can see this in exactly what Rachel Reeves is doing.”
He also criticised Reeves’ decision to allow a third runway to be built at Heathrow Airport and for her “horrible attack” on regulations.
“To make matters worse, [she is] turning on people who care about the natural world,” Monbiot said.
Alluding to the accusations around Reeves’ CV, he suggested that “the big deception is that GDP could be seen as a measure of our wellbeing.”
Education minister Jacqui Smith defended the chancellor on the same programme last night, pointing out that Reeves corrected her LinkedIn account when the issue was raised.
“She is probably the best qualified chancellor that we’ve had for a considerable period,” Smith said. “She is a trained economist, which is – given some of the chaos we’ve had from chancellors and budgets in the recent past – is actually something really really important.”
Reeves has often pointed to her past in the Bank of England to bolster her credentials, and repeatedly claimed to have spent the best part of a decade there.
But she left the Bank nine months earlier than she started on her LinkedIn profile, which means she spent five and a half years there.
A spokesperson has since told reporters that the mistake was due to an administrative error from her team and that the chancellor didn’t see it before it was published. The profile has now been updated.