Leeds MP Rachel Reeves becomes Britain’s first female chancellor News

She says she sends a message to any young woman that “there should be no ceiling on your ambitions”

The UK has its first female Chancellor as Rachel Reeves is given the job by the new Prime Minister.

The MP for Leeds West and Pudsey was re-elected in the newly expanded constituency overnight and has been shadow chancellor since 2021.

In her speech to HM Treasury staff this afternoon, she said:

“It is a huge privilege to be the first female Chancellor of the Exchequer.

“So to every young woman and girl watching this: show today that there should be no ceiling on your ambitions.

“Your hopes or your dreams.

“But there is also a deeper responsibility: to women whose work is too often undervalued.

“Those who have borne the brunt of inequality. And whose lives and interests are too often excluded from economic policy-making.

“Together, we will change this.”

She also says she wants the Labor government to work “hand in hand with business” as it has promised its “core mission” will be to boost economic growth:

“The central mission of this new Government will be to restore economic growth.

“To accomplish that mission, I want this to be the most pro-growth Treasury in our country’s history. That will mean doing what the Treasury does best – building growth on a bedrock of economic stability.”

She said Labor would usher in a new era of industrial strategy as it embarked on its “energy transition”.

Elsewhere, Angela Rayner was confirmed as deputy prime minister and kept the growth, housing and communities plan in brief, and Yvette Cooper is home secretary.