Starmer appoints ‘Tory’ civil servant to counter Reeves

Conservative-defending brother of right-wing Labour MP brought into No 10 as Reeves’s credibility falls further apart

Keir Starmer has brought the Tory-supporting twin brother of a novice right-wing Labour MP into Downing Street as Rachel Reeves’s economic credibility collapses even further. The move has been described as a ‘blow’ to the Chancellor.

Civil servant Olaf Henricson-Bell served as press secretary to Tory Chancellors Philip Hammond and Sajid Javid and worked closely with Rishi Sunak, being sent out regularly to ‘defend the indefensible’ Tory policies rolled out by his political bosses. Henricson-Bell is the non-identical twin of new Swansea West MP Torsten Bell, who was selected to stand for election despite having, according to local members, no connection to the seat or even to Wales.

Reeves’s credibility in the second-top job, already thin after issues like having her parliamentary credit card suspended for inappropriate use, has fallen apart after awful decisions as Chancellor and the UK’s dire economic performance under her and Starmer’s direction and revelations that she declared donations of thousands of pounds for designer clothes as ‘office support’ – then collapsed even further when her former banking boss exploded her career claims and accused her of (another) expenses scandal. Retired Lloyds Bank director Kevin Gillett wrote on his Linkedin page:

In 2009 Rachel Reeves was 3 levels below me. She was a Complaints Support Manager NOT an Economist. She nearly got sacked due to an expenses scandal when Managers were found to have been signing off each others expenses. She then had lots of doctor and dental appointments and so was followed. It turned out she was doing Labour Party business. When confronted, she resigned.

Keir Starmer had earlier refused to say that Reeves would be Chancellor at the next general election, although an office spokesperson subsequently backtracked. Starmer’s own unpopularity has, of course, set new records – and in an apparently over-compensation he has issued a statement saying he backs Reeves and promising huge cuts in public spending, cementing still further his position as a Tory in all but rosette colour:

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