Autumn Budget 2024: Live updates as Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveils Labour’s plan for 40 billion tax raid [Video]

Rachel Reeves, Britain’s first female Chancellor, will make further history today when she delivers her maiden Budget in Parliament this afternoon.

So who is she? How did she come into politics?

Reeves was born in Lewisham, south-east London in 1979 just months before Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister.

She once told the BBC that her family ‘weren’t poor but we didn’t have money to waste’ as he recalled how her mother would tick off items on a bank statement against receipts.

Her parents separated when she was at primary school which meant she was shuttled between homes along with her sister Ellie, also a Labour MP.

She became a national under-14 chess champion after her father taught her at an early age which she credits as helping her to think ahead and plan a strategy.

She joined the Labour Party aged 16 and studied philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) …