It’s tough times at the Treasury for poor Rachel Reeves. With three weeks to go until Labour’s first Budget, every mandarin on Horse Guards Road has been rummaging down the back of the proverbial sofa, looking for any extra cash to spend. The fiscal rules look set for a rejig; taxes are likely to be raised and there’s talk even of spending cuts – though whether the Chancellor can get that past her backbenchers remains another matter.
And with Reeves demanding ‘efficiency savings’ across Whitehall, it seems that retrenchment has even extended to her own office. For centuries, successive ministers at the Treasury were given a robe of office in their capacity as Master of the Mint. Some wore it to coronations while others donned it when attending the Trial of the Pyx – the annual ceremony to ensure that newly minted coins from the Royal Mint to their required dimensional and fineness specifications.
So, with the Lord Chancellor, Shabana Mahmood, proudly showing off her own robes of office last week, Mr S wondered whether Reeves might do the same? Alas, however, the Chancellor’s magnificent garbs – once worn by Churchill and Lloyd George among others – went missing during the Gordon Brown era and are yet to be replaced, two decades on. Given that Reeves is the first female Chancellor in 800 years, might now be the chance to commission some new ones?
Sadly not, it seems, with Treasury sources confirming to Steerpike that there are no plans for replacement robes, with no discussions being held to date on this matter. A shame for traditionalists – but proof, perhaps, that economies really do begin at home.
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