Politics latest: Starmer refuses to back his tearful chancellor Rachel Reeves in extraordinary PMQs

Critics of the Chancellor have been highlighting a Tweet she made in 2012 when she was a newish MP to juxtapose with her tears in PMQs after the government’s humiliation over welfare Reform.

Back then she posted: “Don’t think I’ve ever been so close to tears as I was at surgery today. Feeling angry at govt welfare reforms that so hurt very ill people.”

But many in Labour including ministers are blaming the latest debacle on her to try to find £5bn of savings rather than do meaningful reform.

Until lunchtime today, it appeared that humiliated Keir Starmer was the biggest political victim of the government’s welfare U-turn. The extraordinary and piteous sight of chancellor Rachel Reeves in tears in the Commons has changed that.

She rightly deserves sympathy for the huge personal toll the welfare revolt has clearly had on her. From the moment Labour was elected, Reeves has staked everything on balancing the nation’s books and filling the Conservatives’ “£22bn black hole”.

However, the welfare rebellion by her party has blown a further £5bn hole in her plans, making it impossible for her to keep her pledge of no further tax rises. The fact that more than 100 of her MPs were prepared, in effect, to treat her and her strategy with contempt, forcing her to rip it up, was a big enough blow to her self-esteem.

The SNP Westminster leader has expressed support for Rachel Reeves after the chancellor cried during PMQs.

In a post on X, Stephen Flynn MP said: “Like almost all MPs I don’t know why the Chancellor was upset in the Chamber today, but I do hope she is okay and back to her duties this afternoon.

“Seeing another person in distress is always very difficult, and we are wishing her well.”

Downing Street said Sir Keir Starmer “absolutely” has confidence in his own judgment.

Asked the question by reporters, the prime minister’s press secretary said: “Yes absolutely. This is a prime minister who in the opposition picked the Labour Party off the floor, turned it around and secured the mandate that we received last year.

“This is a prime minister who… is taking a phased approach to government. The first phase is fixing the foundations, including the £22 billion black hole the Tories left, invested record amounts in the NHS and delivered double the amount of appointments that we committed to in the election, frozen fuel duty… and now we’re delivering fairness and security through our plan for change.”

The Independent’s political editor David Maddox reports:

Rachel Reeves’ tears all the way through PMQs have been the talking point of a day where the government appears to be spiralling out of control after the welfare reform debacle.

It emerged that the chancellor had an altercation with Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle on her way into the chamber.

Now it is being suggested that the reason for the Speaker’s ire was that Ms Reeves and her team slowed down Treasury questions on Tuesday to try to lessen the scrutiny.

Neither side has formally commented on the supposed argument.

Our Voices Editor Victoria Richards writes:

Imagine being Rachel Reeves, for a moment. You are sitting in the House of Commons, surrounded by your peers; there to help defend your government’s decisions on welfare reforms after nights of heavy in-fighting and rebellion.

The weight of being the first female chancellor in British history lies heavy on your shoulders; your already watered-down plans to make savings with welfare cuts, even more so. I must not crumble, you might tell yourself.

Read the full comment piece below:

Robert Jenrick has released a brutal social media video saying Rachel Reeves’s “career is dead”, just two hours after the chancellor was seen crying on the Commons frontbenches.

Speaking as he tore up a copy of the government’s welfare reform bill, following last night’s chaotic U-turn, the shadow justice secretary said: “Rachel Reeves’ benefits bill is dead and so is her career.”

He added: “She’s been humiliated by her own backbenches and forced into her most embarrassing U-turn yet. By her own metric, she’s crashed the economy, she’s lost the confidence of the markets, and now it seems she’s lost the confidence of the prime minister too. It’s time for Reeves to go.”