Chancellor Rachel Reeves was visibly in tears during Prime Minister’s Questions today as Sir Keir Starmer refused to guarantee she would remain in role following last night’s welfare reform humiliation. The Telegraph has more.
Sir Keir Starmer failed to repeat a guarantee that Rachel Reeves will remain in her role as Chancellor for the whole of Labour’s first term in power as the Prime Minister remained under huge pressure over his welfare bill climbdown.
Kemi Badenoch took aim at a visibly emotional Ms Reeves during Prime Minister’s Questions and labelled the Chancellor a “human shield” for Sir Keir’s “incompetence”.
The Chancellor could be seen wiping tears from her face during PMQs although the exact reason why was not immediately clear.
Downing Street promised in January this year that Ms Reeves would remain as Chancellor for the duration of the five year parliament.
Mrs Badenoch asked Sir Keir to repeat the commitment.
Gesturing towards Ms Reeves, the Tory leader said: “She looks absolutely miserable. She looks absolutely miserable. Labour MPs are going on the record saying that the Chancellor is toast and the reality is that she is a human shield for his incompetence.
“In January he said that she would be in post until the next election. Will she really?”
Sir Keir said: “She certainly won’t [directed at Mrs Badenoch]. I have to say I am always cheered up when she asks me questions or responds to a statement because she always makes a complete mess of it and shows just how unserious and irrelevant they are.”
Mrs Badenoch then noted that Sir Keir had not guaranteed his Chancellor’s future.
“How awful for the Chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she will stay in place,” she said.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Rachel Reeves was crying after after an “altercation” with Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, it’s been reported. The Telegraph has the inside track:
Ms Reeves was visibly emotional during PMQs and a spokesperson for the Chancellor said afterwards that she was dealing with a “personal matter”.
But it has now emerged that Ms Reeves had a “row” with Sir Lindsay when she entered the chamber before the session got underway.
The Telegraph understands that Sir Lindsay spoke to Ms Reeves before PMQs about her conduct at Treasury questions in the Commons on Tuesday, where he asked her three times to be more brief in her answers.
On the third time, he interrupted her and she replied: “Oh, alright then.”
The Speaker is understood to have told her that it did not reflect well on either of them to be seen to disagree on the floor of the chamber, and pointed towards a tweet by the political sketchwriter Quentin Letts, who reported the altercation at the time.
After Sir Lindsay raised the issue with Ms Reeves today, she is understood to have begun crying.
Her spokesman said that she was already dealing with a “personal matter” before she attended PMQs.
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