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When Neil Kinnock’s Labour Party suffered a shock defeat to John Major’s Conservatives in 1992, he probably never imagined that a mock schools election, held at the same time as the national vote, would produce two of his party’s future stars.
At Cater Park Girls’ School in Beckenham, 13-year-old Rachel Reeves decided to stand in the mock election, with her sister Ellie, a year younger than her, as her campaign manager.
Now Rachel is Chancellor of the Exchequer and Ellie is Leader of the Labour Party. They are both key members of Keir Starmer’s senior leadership team, handpicked by him to transform the country and make the party a winning machine.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves shares a laugh with her sister, Labour Party chairwoman Ellie Reeves (PA)
The last time brothers had such power was when David Miliband was foreign secretary and his brother Ed was environment secretary under Gordon Brown, a leadership contest that didn’t end well for Mr Miliband in 2010, when Ed beat David in a tough battle for power.
But unlike the Milibands, the Reeves sisters didn’t grow up in a politically obsessed household, Ellie Reeves revealed in an exclusive interview with The Independent.
“I wouldn’t say we were a particularly political family. Both my parents were teachers and my dad was very involved in the NUT[National Union of Teachers]- he was the chairman of the Bromley NUT branch – but to be honest he never really talked about politics, I think because he was very keen not to force his views on us.
“We had to decide for ourselves what our values and political beliefs were. My father certainly had very strong beliefs, but I remember, for example, in the 1987 general election, Neil Kinnock was on the news and my father said, ‘We’re voting for him’.”
“But that’s the only time I remember discussing politics as a girl.”
By the time of the 1992 election, five years later, the two sisters were finding themselves in roles that overlap with their work today.
David Miliband and Ed Miliband became rivals (Getty)
“I remember the 1992 general election. We were at school and there was a mock election. Rachel ran in the mock election and I was her campaign manager. She put me in charge of handing out flyers, stickers and things like that.”
But there were real issues at the time that shaped their politics even more: the Conservatives’ sell-off on the pound ruined the economy and sent interest rates soaring, with decisive consequences for the Reeves family.
“I remember my mother getting her credit card bills at the end of each month and going through her bank accounts, carefully reconciling everything and making sure she had enough money at the end. I remember interest rates skyrocketing in the early ’90s. There was a certain sense of desperation about paying the mortgage.”
Ellie joined the Labour Party in the mid-1990s, aged 15, and Rachel joined as a teenager, before both went on to study at Oxford University.
Rachel won her seat in Leeds West and Pudsey and now holds a senior position, while Ellie holds her family’s local seat in Lewisham.
But Ellie maintains that there was no serious rivalry during her growing up years, for one important reason.
“She always won everything,” Ellie said with a laugh, especially since Rachel was the British Under-14 Girls Chess Champion.
Despite their rapid rise to the top of the New Labour government, Ellie remains humble about their achievements, laughs when described as “the most powerful group of sisters in the UK”.
“We’re just ordinary women from south-east London and we’ve definitely had to pinch ourselves a few times since the election,” she said.
