Reeves beats Kwarteng to ‘worst chancellor’ in new ranking
Just months after her exit from Number 11, Rachel Reeves has been given the dubious honour of being voted “worst chancellor”, in a new survey.
According to an AJ Bell survey, Reeves was the least popular of the last five chancellors, and even ranked below Kwasi Kwarteng, who held the role for just over a month.
Kwarteng has been dogged by his leading role in putting Liz Truss’ “mini-budget” to the country in 2022 – a year in which he was the shortest serving of four chancellors.
Sarah Coles, who heads up personal finance for AJ Bell, pointed out that current chancellor John Healey has already outlasted both Kwarteng and his immediate predecessor Nadhim Zahawi, who headed up the Treasury in the dying days of the Boris Johnson government and has since defected to Reform.
She pointed to uncertainty, briefing culture and “unnecessary complication” emanating from the Treasury as key points dragging Sir Keir Starmer’s chancellor down in the rankings.
In her advice to Healey – who faces a number of tough decisions ahead of his first Budget later this month – Coles says he should look to pursue clarity as much as possible and to rule out tax changes which have already been taken off the table by the government.
“The previous two Budgets were marked by an incredible amount of speculation in the months leading up to them. There were rumours coming out of government about things being considered, and then an enormous reluctance to confirm or deny them.
“It means people were incredibly worried about potential tax rises, and some felt forced into decisions that they came to regret.”
Number 11 has become a revolving door
Coles points to a certain influence of “recency bias” on the results, though added that “holding the post for longer meant more time for bad news to build for Reeves”.
Rishi Sunak was voted as the best chancellor of the five, even though it was only through his being booted out of office that led to Reeves being appointed in the first place.
With John Healey now occupying Number 11, there has been an extraordinary churn in the role in recent years. Though in both the 1820s and 1920s there were five-year periods with five chancellors, there has never been as many as six in such a short period of time.
By contrast, from 1983 to 2007, there were just five chancellors. Gordon Brown served in the role for a full decade, though this tenure was dwarfed by that of William Pitt the Younger, who held the role for more than 17 years (whilst also being Prime Minister).