All is not well on the Labour front benches. As Sir Keir Starmer defends his welfare U-turn in the Commons – after last night an eleventh-hour concession saw the government push back Personal Insurance Payment changes – behind him Chancellor Rachel Reeves is struggling to keep it together. Looking both upset and rather sleep deprived, the beleaguered Chancellor has even shed a few tears during the gruelling session.
Throughout Prime Minister’s Questions, Reeves appeared close to tears – and a line of questioning by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch seemed to push her over the edge. The Conservative party leader quizzed the Prime Minister on whether the Chancellor would hold onto her job – and in response, Starmer refused to guarantee Reeves’s security. Behind him, tears rolled down Reeves’s face. Meanwhile, Bloomberg attributed a huge gilt selloff to the scenes at PMQs.
In an update, a spokesperson for Reeves has claimed she was crying in response to a ‘personal matter’, saying:
It’s a personal matter which – as you would expect – we are not going to get into. The Chancellor will be working out of Downing Street this afternoon.
It comes after Tuesday evening’s vote on Labour’s welfare reforms, which were reversed at the very last minute after backbenchers threatened to thwart the bill. The bill passed, but 49 Labour MPs voted against it – marking the biggest rebellion of Starmer’s premiership thus far. No. 10 have said that no one will be disciplined over the benefits bill mess, but Reeves’s rather visible unhappiness suggests otherwise…
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