Rachel Reeves admitted that a tweet that described her as “boring, snoring” during a TV appearance left her feeling slightly humiliated.

But the then-shadow treasury secretary, who had been Leeds West MP for three years when BBC Newsnight editor Ian Katz posted the view in 2013, was clear about what her priorities were when asked about it.

“Glamorous and exciting are probably not two things you’d want from someone in charge of public finances – you want someone who’s steady, who’s serious, who’s responsible,” she told The Guardian.

A decade later, Labour has swept back to power and she has billed herself as a stable force whose “tough decisions” as Chancellor will put the UK’s economy back on track.Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves at the Confederation of British Industry conference in November (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Her promise to serve as the country’s “iron” Chancellor and an emphasis on supply-side reform invited comparisons between herself and Margaret Thatcher – to the dismay of some on the left.

But allies of the former child chess champion have said she has the type of analytical mind required for the challenges that awaited her at the Treasury.

Ms Reeves was born in Lewisham and grew up in south London. She studied PPE at Oxford and has a Master’s degree in economics from the LSE.

The MP for Leeds West and Pudsey was first elected to Parliament in 2010 and became the shadow chancellor in Sir Keir’s opposition Cabinet in 2021.

She has a stint at the Bank of England and four years in private sector banking under her belt.

But she has also faced claims that she embellished her CV to boost her credentials.

Her LinkedIn profile showed she spent six years at the Bank of England rather than a decade as she had previously said, and she was reported to have changed her profile on the networking site to change a job at Halifax Bank of Scotland from “economist” to “retail banking”, newspapers reported.

She became Britain’s first female Chancellor in July against a daunting backdrop of a sluggish economy and competing demands for public spending.

Ms Reeves described her appointment as “the honour of my life” and a sign for all women and girls that there should be “no limit to your ambitions”.

She has been unapologetically pro-business, talking up growth as the linchpin of success in government.

Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves during an investment roundtable discussion in Downing Street in November (Frank Augstein/PA)

She embarked on a so-called “smoked salmon offensive” of breakfast meetings with leaders of the FTSE 250 in the months before the election and then courted businesses for an international investment summit in October.

But her Budget decision to raise national insurance for employers – after Labour’s repeated election pledge not to increase taxes on “working people” – has prompted a backlash from businesses.

And she is under pressure over her pledge to restore financial stability as growth has failed to match expectations and amid rising government borrowing costs.

Downing Street has said that Ms Reeves will remain Chancellor until the next general election, but this has done little to dampen speculation about her position.