Why won’t the jokes about Rachel Reeves’s CV go away?

Why do jokes about Rachel Reeves’s CV persist? One explanation is simple: it’s funny. The Chancellor’s public persona is strait-laced and orderly; the idea of her doing something slightly naughty and gilding her CV is good material for comedy.

But is that all? Reeves’s tweaks to her LinkedIn profile are, bluntly, trivial. They’re also minor compared to the airbrushing some politicians carry out on their personal histories. You might have forgotten a man called Rishi Sunak, but when he became Chancellor then PM, how much fuss was made of the fact that he had deleted whole jobs from his CV? Sunak vanished several years at Goldman Sachs and the TCI hedge fund from his history.

Meanwhile, throw a stone in SW1A and you’ll hit three people who haven’t been 100 per cent transparent about their professional history. I’ve lost count of the number of MPs I’ve known who have deleted jobs in public affairs and PR from their records.