Labour’s shadow chancellor has ‘unpaid’ student interns

LABOUR’S shadow chancellor had three students working for her office while only paying them expenses, in what critics have called “unpaid internships”, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

Rachel Reeves provided the students with travel and lunch expenses but did not pay them a salary over the past academic year.

Critics said the positions were in effect “unpaid internships” and accused Ms Reeves of hypocrisy given her robust criticism of the practice in the past.

Ms Reeves’s office said the positions did not amount to “unpaid interns” because the students are on work placement and get maintenance support.

One of the interns also claimed that they worked a day a week in the office of Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader.

A Labour spokeswoman said no student had been placed with Sir Keir’s office but did not rule out that one of Ms Reeves’s placement students did work for him during their stint.

Universities run degrees that include an academic year’s work placement with an MP in Parliament. During that time, they receive student financial support, which can include loans to cover tuition fees and maintenance costs.

Ms Reeves’s office covers costs such as transport and lunch. But other MPS have chosen to pay those involved.

Guy Opperman, the Tory MP for Hexham and pensions minister, employed a paid student intern working in his office for six months. Anna Firth, the Tory MP for Southend West, has a student intern starting a nine-month work placement in her office next week who will be paid.

Alec Shelbrooke, a Tory MP who put forward a Private Member’s Bill to ban unpaid internships, said Ms Reeves’s decision not to pay the students was “immoral”.

A Labour spokeswoman said: “There are no unpaid interns in Rachel Reeves’ office. They do have students on official work placements, which are an important part of their undergraduate degree. They get the same financial support as if they were studying, and their travel and lunch expenses are also covered.”