CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves broke down in tears at PMQs — minutes after admitting she was “under so much pressure”.
In another meltdown day for Downing Street following the benefits vote fiasco, TV cameras showed her sobbing on the frontbench.
Weeping Ms Reeves wipes eyes during tense PMQsPixel8000
Pixel8000Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s tears plunged Labour into a fresh crisis[/caption]
Ms Reeves, pictured with the PM, bites back at Ms BadenochPixel8000
Money markets took fright at the extraordinary scenes, forcing Sir Keir Starmer later to give Ms Reeves his full backing.
No 10 denied the pair had rowed. The Chancellor was said to be upset about a personal matter.
Her tears at PMQs plunged Labour into a fresh crisis — and sparked panic on the money markets.
Speculation mounted about Reeves’s future when Starmer publicly refused to guarantee her job.
She admitted feeling “under so much pressure” minutes before her outburst, dubbed “waterworksgate”.
But Sir Keir told BBC Radio 4’s Political Thinking show he worked “in lockstep” with her and she is “doing an excellent job as chancellor”.
He proclaimed Reeves will remain chancellor “into the next election and for many years after”.
It followed Tuesday’s last-minute climbdown on cuts to personal independence payments (PIP) to fend off a Labour revolt and pass the flagship Welfare Bill.
Sources dismissed rumours Ms Reeves and Sir Keir had a bust-up before noon’s PMQs, but claimed she’d had terse words with Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.
Ms Reeves’s spokesman insisted her crying was down to personal reasons he “would not be getting into”. And allies denied she was on the brink of quitting.
The Chancellor, 46, was comforted by sister Ellie, a Labour minister, but Sir Keir did not speak to her as she was led to her office next to the Commons chamber.
No 10 had to delete a clip from Sir Keir’s X because it showed Ms Reeves crying next to him, though it insisted the Chancellor was “going nowhere”.
The PM and Ms Reeves were said to have spoken last night and were working “business as usual”.
Money markets earlier panicked at the prospect of a change of Chancellor and possible abandonment of her spending rules.
UK ten-year borrowing costs surged to 4.6 per cent and the Pound fell by one per cent against the Dollar to less than $1.36.
Tuesday’s gutting of the welfare reforms left Ms Reeves needing to plug a bigger hole in public savings — either by spending cuts, tax rises or borrowing.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch pounced at Prime Minister’s Questions — quizzing Sir Keir about whether Ms Reeves would remain in place.
Taking aim at the puffy-eyed Chancellor, Ms Badenoch said: “She looks absolutely miserable.
“Labour MPs are going on the record saying the Chancellor is toast. The reality is she’s a human shield for his (the PM’s) incompetence. Will she really be in post for the next election?”
In response, the PM did not confirm Ms Reeves would remain in post until 2029.
COMMONS MELTDOWN
11.50: Rachel Reeves says she is under “so much pressure” just before Prime Minister’s Questions.
12.00: She appears at PMQs.
12.12: Kemi Badenoch twists the knife, asking the PM: “Will the Chancellor even be in post by the next election?”
12.13: Sir Keir Starmer dodges the question, and Ms Reeves is seen shedding tears in the background.
12.45: Downing Street insists the Chancellor is “going nowhere”.
13.00: A spokesperson says Ms Reeves was dealing with a “personal matter”.
He would only tell Ms Badenoch: “I have to say I’m always cheered 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.”
Ms Reeves is said to have been given a ticking off by the Speaker on Tuesday for taking too long to answer questions, to which she snapped back.
It is believed he again collared her before PMQs yesterday when she is understood to have welled up and confided to being “under so much pressure”.
A spokesperson for Sir Lindsay did not comment.
Rachel Reeves’s benefits Bill is dead, and so is her career.
Robert Jenrick
In her first year in the job, Ms Reeves has faced fierce criticism over winter fuel, welfare cuts, the National Insurance raid, sluggish growth, taxing farmers and taking freebies.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting defended her last night, calling her a “tough cookie”. He told The Sun: “We are not invincible and superhuman as politicians.”
But senior Tory Robert Jenrick said: “Rachel Reeves’s benefits Bill is dead, and so is her career.
“She’s been humiliated by her backbenchers and been forced into her most embarrassing U-turn yet.
“By her own metric she’s crashed the economy, lost the confidence of the markets and now, it seems, the confidence of the Prime Minister too. It’s time for Reeves to go.”
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch pounced at Prime Minister’s QuestionsPixel8000
PAThere were claims the Chancellor had exchanged terse words with Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle[/caption]
Yesterday Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden warned about Labour’s U-turns, telling Times Radio: “The process of the last couple of weeks does have financial consequences.
“They will all be taken together with other moving parts in the economy, in the fiscal picture at the Budget.
‘Recent antics’
“But I’m not denying that when you set out on a plan that has a cost attached to it, then you have to change that or take it forward in slower time, that is a decision with financial consequences.”
One Labour MP hit out at Ms Reeves’s mutinous colleagues for forcing the concessions, saying: “We’ve got to live within our means, and I’d gently point out to colleagues that their recent antics have not helped that cause.”
JP Morgan says the Chancellor could face a financial black hole of up to £18billion. The bank’s Allan Monks added: “It appears likely that there will be pressure to raise taxes at the Budget.”
Business confidence remains fragile after firms swallowed the jump in tax and labour costs in April, according to research by the British Chambers of Commerce.
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