Tomorrow's Business Today
Rachel Reeves – chess champion, Concorde pilot, marathon winner
How serious is the row over Rachel Reeves’s CV?
So far, only news brands that are obviously against the Chancellor in the first place have really stuck the boot in.
Kelvin MacKenzie on GB News says she is “wounded”.
The accusation that she lied fits in with a wider narrative, that Labour in general misled voters on its tax plans. I think voters are sort of blasé about that – they expect it.
This is different, more personal.
Richard Holden MP has made public a letter to Reeves in which he says the allegations are “incredibly serious and would raise significant concerns about your ability to be honest with the British public, concerns which your Budget has already raised”.
The Independent comes to her defence. It notes: “The basic facts of her rise to power are not in question; she is neither an imposter nor a fantasist, and the allegations from Tory circles of ‘incredibly serious’ fraud look exaggerated at best.”
Some of the claims are sort of comic. Did she really win a girls’ chess championship when she was 14, or was she in fact a joint winner of a different competition altogether?
The internet has had its fun – here is Rachel Reeves winning the London marathon, flying Concorde to New York and inventing the NHS.
That it has become a joke helps Reeves, she can join in, shrug if off and get past this one.
But these details do matter. Ten years ago Sky Sports boss Barney Francis, bragged in an interview that he was quite a cricketer, playing for Nottinghamshire County representative teams.
Unfortunately for him, he is the exact same age as two business reporters who really did play for those sides.
So we had him.
“Stalwarts of that team have no recollection of him,” was The Guardian’s gently devastating take. Harsher versions followed.
For flaks this issue is a nightmare. Would the LinkedIn claims of their CEO stand up to a rigorous analysis?
Or have they partly bullshitted their way to the top as everyone long suspected?
Now feels like the time to find out. Before hacks do.
Please send candidates for press release of the day to: Simon.english@roxhillmedia.com
Press release of the day
Solid commentary here from GAM Investments on today’s inflation figures and how the Bank of England might react to them.
Julian Howard says: “The BoE’s dilemma reflects a similar tension at the heart of the new government’s policy, namely supporting growth while trying to achieve a contradictory aim at the same time. For the government, this is improving public services. For the BoE, it is controlling inflation.”
The Bank can’t just “myopically chase down” rising prices he notes.
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