Reeves-watchers are still divided over whether her tough approach is pragmatic or the result of deeply seated beliefs
As Rachel Reeves hosted a charity breakfast in the grand state room at No 11 Downing Street last week, she stood beneath an 18th-century portrait of a politically powerful woman from another era: Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough.
Part of Reeves’s feminist rehang, the painting of Queen Anne’s confident right-hand woman, resplendent in velvet, underlined how visibly different the Treasury now looks under the leadership of the first female chancellor.
