What we’ve learned about her expenses and Labour response

Since BBC News reported on Thursday that Rachel Reeves had exaggerated her online CV and had been investigated over her use of expenses while working at Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), Labour colleagues have mounted a robust defence of the chancellor.

Sir Keir Starmer said she had “dealt with any issues that arise” from the questions about her CV, and Health Secretary Wes Streeting told BBC Newsnight that she was doing a “brilliant and difficult job”.

But Labour figures have questioned our reporting on the expenses investigation, with one cabinet minister calling it totally inaccurate.

Here we examine the key Labour responses and look at the evidence that supports our journalism.

The BBC News investigation revealed that concerns were raised about Reeves’s expenses while working at HBOS between 2006 and 2009.

A detailed six-page whistleblowing complaint was submitted, with dozens of pages of supporting documents including emails, receipts and memos.

It accused Reeves and two other managers, one of whom was her boss, of using the bank’s money to “fund a lifestyle”, with spending on events, taxis and gifts, including for each other.

We have seen these documents and spoken to more than 20 people, many of whom were former colleagues.

The complaint led to an internal investigation by the bank’s risk department.

This was passed to internal audit, which reviewed the allegations and concluded that they were substantiated and there appeared to be evidence of wrongdoing by Reeves and her two colleagues, according to a senior source with direct knowledge of the investigation.

What we have not been able to establish is what happened next and whether the bank ever reached a formal conclusion.

Reeves has said she was not aware of an investigation or issue with her expenses and said she left the bank on good terms.

She said her expenses had always been signed off in the proper way. The person who signed off her expenses, her boss, was also subject to the internal investigation.

Other Labour figures have criticised BBC News’s reporting on the story, with two MPs repeating similar attacks.

On Friday, Science Secretary Peter Kyle told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the reporting was “inaccurate”.

Both he and Siobhain McDonagh, a Labour MP who appeared on BBC’s Politics Live on Thursday, raised comments by a former HR manager, Jane Wayper – which, they said, disproved the BBC News’s story.

Wayper spoke to the BBC after being given permission to do so by Reeves’s team.

She provided an on-the-record statement which said she “would have been made aware of any investigation which concluded there was a case to answer” on the basis that she “would have been required to organise and oversee a disciplinary process”.

However, the BBC has not reported that the case reached a formal conclusion, or that there was disciplinary action.

Kyle incorrectly claimed that the quote had not been included in our report – but it had been in the article since it was first published on Thursday morning.

He also incorrectly referred to Wayper as the head of HR at the bank.

In reality she was an HR business partner working in the department where Reeves worked.

On Friday, Reeves was asked about the expenses claims directly. She said: “No-one ever raised any concerns about my expenses when I worked for Halifax Bank of Scotland.”

She said her expenses had been “signed off in the proper way” and “no issues were ever raised” during her time at the bank.

Her expenses were signed off by her manager, who was also one of the three employees who were the subject of the expenses probe.

Reeves left the bank in May 2009, as did her boss. The other senior manager was on sick leave in May and never returned to work at the bank.

There is no suggestion any of the departures were linked to the investigation or spending issues and a spokesman for Reeves said the chancellor left the bank on good terms.

Reeves has accepted the findings of another part of our investigation, this time over her CV.

We established that the chancellor had exaggerated the length of time she worked at the Bank of England.

Reeves has often said she spent the “best part of a decade” working at the bank when setting out her credentials to run the economy to voters.

However, her LinkedIn profile said she only worked there for six years – from September 2000 to December 2006. A year of that time was spent studying at the London School of Economics (LSE).

The BBC has now established that Reeves left the Bank of England in March 2006, meaning the time she spent working there amounts to five and a half years.

A spokesman for Reeves confirmed that dates on her LinkedIn were inaccurate and said it was due to an administrative error by the team. Her profile on the social media site has since been updated.