Town grandee Victor Blank gave Rachel Reeves £175k donation

Rachel Reeves has received £175,000 in donations from City grandee Sir Victor Blank, former TSB chairman.

Sir Victor was at the helm when Lloyds was forced by the last Labor government to bail out Halifax Bank of Scotland during the financial crisis.

A long-time Labor supporter, he gave the money to his Westminster office between 2021 and 2023, when Reeves was shadow chancellor.

The news comes as questions continue to be raised about his role at HBOS when it was acquired by Lloyds in a £20bn taxpayer-funded bailout in 2008.

Reeves initially said he worked as an economist at HBOS before entering politics. But his LinkedIn profile was changed to say his job was in retail banking.

The update drew criticism that he attempted to exaggerate his role at a lender that nearly collapsed during his time there.

Reeves also worked as an economist at the Bank of England for six years before joining HBOS in 2006. He had previously said he spent “a decade” at the Bank.

Conservative MP Richard Holden wrote to Reeves asking for more clarity on his employment history. “Allegations that his CV may not be accurate are incredibly serious and would raise significant concerns about his ability to be honest with the British public – concerns which his budget has already raised,” he wrote.

Reeves has been criticized for her tax and spend budget which included a £25bn increase in employers’ National Insurance payments which was not in Labour’s manifesto.

It is understood she first met Sir Victor after she left HBoS and became an MP in 2010.

He stopped donating to the Labor Party five years later, but resumed donations after Reeves became shadow chancellor in 2021.

She is the only MP to have received his generosity since then. As chairman of Lloyds TSB, Sir Victor was cornered by Prime Minister Gordon Brown at a reception in 2008 and encouraged to buy HBoS, which had been brought down by lax lending, poor risk controls and a lack of liquidity. .

Sir Victor, who is also former chairman of media group Trinity Mirror, left Lloyds TSB the following year, after the chance marriage was completed.

A Treasury source said Reeves “worked in retail banking covering several areas drawing on his experience as an economist.”

A Labor Party spokesman said: “All donations have been declared in accordance with the rules in the normal way.”

Sir Victor has been contacted for comment.