There's 'peril' in being our first ever female chancellor

Britain has had three female PMs but Rachel Reeves is the first woman to head up the Treasury. Cathy Newman hears her pride at being the one to break the glass ceiling in No 11

- Cathy Newman

When Rachel Reeves became the first female chancellor since the post was created 800 years ago, there was no disguising her pride in her historic achievement.

In her very first speech to Treasury staff, she remarked on what a “huge privilege” it was. Beaming from ear to ear, she positioned herself as a standard bearer for “every young woman and girl” to demonstrate that “there should be no ceilings on your ambitions, your hopes or your dreams”.

While Hillary Clinton had booked a party venue with a glass ceiling, in anticipation of being able to smash through it with her doomed 2016 US presidential bid, Reeves has done it. (Breaking up the urinal in the chancellor’s private office was to prove slightly more challenging after Treasury officials told her it would cost thousands and require listed building consent.)

On Monday, the chancellor told me how “deeply proud” she was. “It will be the first time in this country’s history that a Budget will be delivered by a woman. For the girls and young women watching, I hope they will see it as a moment of pride. A sign that there is no ceiling on their ambitions and that another glass ceiling has been smashed,” she said.

For Reeves, this has been a personal mission, inspired by Labour pioneers like Barbara Castle, Ellen Wilkinson and Harriet Harman. And there’s no doubt what a positive achievement it is – in an otherwise bleak tax-raising Budget.

Thangam Debbonaire, newly elected chair of the Labour Women’s Network, says: “Yes it matters that there’s never been a female chancellor and it’s noteworthy … It matters that young women know everywhere that it’s not easy but it’s possible. It’s symbolism, but it matters.”