Rachel Reeves named worst chancellor in recent history

Rachel Reeves has been voted the worst chancellor in recent history, outranking Kwasi Kwarteng, the architect of the disastrous mini-budget that sent mortgage rates soaring in 2022. The investment platform AJ Bell asked 2,000 adults to choose the least successful of the past five chancellors and found that 26 per cent named Reeves, who ran the Treasury for two years from July 2024. 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Money newsletter Explore our newsletters Rishi Sunak was named least successful by 7 per cent; Jeremy Hunt was fourth with 5 per cent and Nadhim Zahawi, who was chancellor for two months before being moved on by Truss to make way for Kwarteng in 2022, was bottom of the list with 4 per cent. More than a third of respondents said they didn’t have an opinion. The simple napkin sketch that exposes Rachel Reeves’s folly Advertisement Sarah Coles from AJ Bell said: “Kwarteng was out of a job within a month and most of the measures he announced were reversed, and yet he has been voted only the second least successful chancellor of the past five years, after Rachel Reeves. Top stories 1 Andrew takes Thames Valley police to court over Jeffrey Epstein investigation Royal family Top stories 1 Six thrilling Costa Rica trips with Times Holidays Promoted content “A vote like this will always have some recency bias. In addition, holding the post for longer meant more time for bad news to build for Reeves.” Reeves oversaw the scrapping of winter fuel payments for nearly 10 million pensioners weeks after Labour won the general election in July 2024. The move was widely criticised and Reeves was forced to U-turn in June 2025, reinstating the payments to pensioners with incomes of less than £35,001. She also ended 100 per cent relief from inheritance tax for farmers and business owners, initially proposing 20 per cent tax on any value of farm estates over £1m. This was increased to £2.5m in December 2025 after nationwide protests and uproar among farmers and rural communities. So long, Rachel Reeves — living proof that politics and economics don’t mix Advertisement In her first budget in 2024 Reeves made £40bn worth of tax increases — the biggest since 1993. She also brought pensions into the inheritance tax net, a move that will take effect from April next year, and raised employer national insurance from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent of workers’ salary. During her time as chancellor, she committed to significant spending on public services, including increasing spending on the NHS by £29bn a year, setting aside £39bn for social housing across the next decade and freezing fuel duty, rail fares and prescription fees. Unsurprisingly the poll suggested that Reeves was most unpopular with voters on the right: some 51 per cent of Reform voters chose her as the least successful chancellor of recent times; 40 per cent of Conservative voters and 13 per cent of Labour voters. Among the over-65s some 43 per cent named her as the worst. The winners and losers of Andy Burnham’s high-stakes gamble Kwarteng’s mini-budget in September 2022 included £45bn of unfunded tax cuts, such as scrapping the 45 per cent additional income tax rate and raising the stamp duty threshold to £425,000 for first-time buyers. Advertisement In the days after his red box speech, the cost of government borrowing leapt, forcing the Bank of England to buy up government bonds, the pound crashed to an all-time low against the dollar and mortgage rates soared as banks pulled more than 1,600 deals overnight. When Kwarteng was replaced by Jeremy Hunt a month later, nearly all his policies were reversed, calming the bond and mortgage markets. According to the poll, 36 per cent of Labour voters put him as the worst chancellor, while 32 per cent of Lib Dem voters and 24 per cent of Tory voters also thought him the least successful. The poll also asked respondents to vote for who they thought was the most successful chancellor, with Sunak, who ran the Treasury during the pandemic, coming out on top with 26 per cent of the vote. Reeves and Hunt were joint second with 8 per cent, while Kwarteng was named by 2 per cent of respondents and Zahawi 1 per cent.