Calls to investigate ex-Chancellor Rachel Reeves over secret meetings with City firms

Tories last night urged the Whitehall sleaze watchdog to investigate Rachel Reeves over secret meetings with City firms amid claims she is poised to quit Parliament to ‘cash in’ on her experience as Chancellor.

The Mail on Sunday understands Ms Reeves and her ex-spin doctor Ben Nunn have met two City companies in the last fortnight.

Sources with knowledge of the top-level meetings, which came just ahead of this week’s Budget, say they discussed the political advice the pair could offer.

They also claimed that chief executives at the meetings had both met Ms Reeves, 47, several times when she was Chancellor.

The discussions are said to have included Mr Nunn’s new political advisory firm, Arlington Road Consultants, which he has just launched.

The meetings emerged amid suggestions at Westminster that the Leeds West MP will soon follow the example of ex-PM Sir Keir Starmer and resign her Commons seat.

However, strict Whitehall rules limit what work former Ministers can do once they leave office to ‘counter suspicion’ that when still in office, they might be influenced by the expectation of future employment.

Until July when Ms Reeves was sacked by incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Nunn was her most senior adviser at the Treasury.

Their combined insight and knowledge could potentially be invaluable to private companies ahead of this week’s Budget.

Last night, the Tories challenged Ms Reeves to ‘come clean’ about the meetings and called on Whitehall’s sleaze watchdog to investigate any potential breaches.

In a letter to Sir Laurie Magnus, Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards, Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake said: ‘The Rules are clear that former ministers must never draw on, or disclose for the benefit of others, privileged information gained in office’ – including contacts.'

As a Special Adviser, Mr Nunn – who was previously a senior advisor to Sir Keir Starmer as Opposition Leader - is also subject to similar ‘Business Appointment Rules’ on divulging information to businesses.

Both he and Ms Reeves are both banned from lobbying government for two years.

Last night, Mr Hollinrake urged the ex-Chancellor to comply with the requirement of ex-Ministers to seek advice from the Independent Adviser before taking up new private work for two years after leaving office.

He told the Mail on Sunday: ‘If Rachel Reeves has been meeting City firms with her former adviser to drum up business days before a Budget she spent months preparing, that would be a scandalous breach of very clear rules.

‘The Business Appointment Rules apply to every former minister. They exist to stop precisely this kind of use of privileged information, and the perception that it is being used.

‘Rachel Reeves must come clean and explain what she has been up to. If she does not, it will look yet again like one rule for Labour MPs and another for everyone else.’

Mr Nunn’s new consultancy is named after the ‘Arlington Road’ group of Labour plotters who sought to oust Jeremy Corbyn and install Sir Keir as his replacement.

He is the sole director of the company which critics have suggested helps the former Chancellor to ‘fly under the radar’ in any approaches to City firms.

Last year’s Budget, which he and Ms Reeves oversaw, was branded a ‘fiasco’ by critics after it was preceded by weeks of chaotic leaks and public confusion.

It was nicknamed the ‘hokey cokey Budget’, after major tax rises and spending cuts were leaked by insiders, debated, and then ultimately dropped or reversed.

Her successor John Healey has been cautious to avoid such briefings this year, preferring instead to play down speculation around this Wednesday’s Statement.

Ms Reeves was approached to comment on the meetings.

Mr Nunn declined to comment.