Rachel Reeves

First female chancellor in British history

New government and new cabinet, so Rachel Reeves, the UK’s first female chancellor, is no longer the chancellor.

Following uniform statements from outgoing minister - ‘It had been the privilege of my life to serve….’, it prompted me to quickly post something about my very brief portrait encounter with the former chancellor.

And it was indeed quick, The Observer had a 10 minute interview in her office at number 11, where I could take some photos and that was kind of it.

She stuck to a single policy that she wanted to talk about, despite the journalist, Toby Helm, trying to steer it to other, more interesting, topics. It was 3 months into the new labour government and the size of the ‘financial black hole’* left by the Tories, was pretty much the answer to any question.

* Having studied Astronomy and Physics at university, I find the use of this term odd - its not a black hole its just a hole or a shortfall. Its not a catastrophic collapse of a star, into an astronomical body so compact that its gravity prevents anything, including light, from escaping. Also a Black hole is very hard to spot as nothing can escape it to indicate that it is there. So this metaphor doesn’t really work.

The interview was over and as we were politely being steered out of her office - despite being told not to by the PR - I asked her if I could get a very quick portrait with eyes to camera. 10 frames later we were out of the room.