The shallow truth about Rachel Reeves

Sexism struck early in Rachel Reeves’s life. Last night the shadow chancellor gave a talk about her new book on female economists, and she recalled an early brush with toxic masculinity. Aged eight, competing in a public chess tournament, she faced a little boy who foresaw a swift and easy victory. ‘Lucky I’m playing a girl’, he said. Reeves duly thrashed him. ‘He didn’t say it again after that,’ she told the crowd.

At Oxford and the LSE she was a keen sexism detective and she noted with dismay that there were no women teaching economics at either university. Things got worse at the male-dominated Treasury where her colleagues created a new computer graphic, BOEQM (Bank of England Quarterly Model.) The chaps referred to BOEQM as ‘Beckham,’ which made Reeves feel uncomfortable and excluded. ““Beckham?” I thought: “Oh, this just does my head in”,’ she told us, although she didn’t explain why the footballer’s name caused her so much distress.