Rachel Reeves is facing yet another embarrassment after being accused of lying about her childhood chess record, a claim she has dined out on for years as supposed evidence of her razor sharp political instincts.
The Chancellor, who never misses a chance to pose with a chessboard in a photo op, has long suggested that her youthful prowess at the game shaped her into the political operator she is today. But now she stands accused of gilding the lily by claiming a title she never actually won.
In a 2023 interview with The Guardian, Ms Reeves boldly declared, “I played chess. I was the British girls’ under 14 champion.” Except, according to people who were actually there and the public record, she was no such thing.
The results of the British Under-14 Girls Champion are public record and state that Emily Howard won the title.
Alex Edmans, himself a former junior chess champion, added Reeves only came “joint 26th out of 34.” He added that he had “never heard” of her during his youth competitions, despite her being just a year older.
A source close to Reeves tried to brush off the row, calling the suggestion she misled anyone “for the birds”. But as a former Conservative MP says: “It is becoming harder for the Chancellor to escape the impression that she plays fast and loose with the truth, between the inflated CV entries, the budget and now this. She’s getting quite the reputation as a downright liar.”
A source suggests she “may have played and won a separate chess title and misremembered the event.” But an initial investigation suggests it was certainly not what she claimed was the British girls championship, which is defined as the highest placed girl in the mixed British under 14 tournament. The row has already reignited scrutiny of the Chancellor’s habit of embellishing her achievements.
I HAVE HAD THE CHESS BUG, CLAIMS REEVES
Reeves has leaned heavily on her childhood hobby for political branding. Before the autumn Budget she posed with a chessboard and last year pushed out a glossy video in which she announced, “My dad taught me how to play chess at the age of seven and since then I have had the chess bug.” She said the game taught her to be strategic and competitive.
But sharing Reeves’s video on X this week, Chess champion Mr Edmans wrote, “I played for the England junior chess team, was British Squad Champion and London Junior Champion, but had never heard of Rachel Reeves even though she was only a year above me.
Newspaper claims that she was British U14 girls champion are false, she came 26th out of 34 in that tournament.”
He added that the claim had been repeated because of a “narrative fallacy” that her chess background makes her a competent Chancellor. “If chess really shaped her approach, it is hard to see it on the board,” he said.
A PATTERN OF EXAGGERATION
This is far from the first time Reeves has been caught massaging her record. Last year she quietly edited her LinkedIn profile, removing a claim that she was an economist at the Bank of Scotland from 2006 to 2009. It later emerged she worked in “retail banking” at Halifax. Critics accused her of being “economical with the truth”.
She also previously claimed she spent ten years working as an economist at the Bank of England. Her own LinkedIn says she was there for around six years.
Her book released in 2023 was found to contain passages lifted straight from Wikipedia. And she was recently accused of misleading the public by suggesting there was a multi billion pound hole in the public finances before the Budget, despite officials at the Office for Responsibility telling her no such deficit existed. In fact the last estimate suggested a surplus of £4.2 billion.
For someone who insists she learned discipline and long term strategy from chess, Reeves is rapidly gaining a reputation for making moves that do not quite match the truth.
