The British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has told the BBC that his finance minister, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves, will remain in her job for “a very long time”.
It came after Rachel Reeves cried as she sat beside the Sir Keir in Parliament, following the collapse of the UK government’s plans for billions of pounds of cuts to welfare spending, which she had said were essential in order to control public spending.
Reeves had advocated the proposals which included large cuts in support to disabled people. It was reported that she had taken a hard line up to the last moment, urging the prime minister not to given in to many angry MPs in their governing Labour Party who eventually forced a U-turn.
The prime minister declined to confirm to Parliament that Reeves would remain in her job until the next election. But later Sir Keir told the BBC that he worked “in lockstep” with Reeves and she was “doing an excellent job as Chancellor”.
Following her appearance in Parliament, Reeves’ spokesperson said she had been dealing with a “personal matter” while Sir Keir insisted her tears had “nothing to do with politics”.
At the highly-charged Prime Minister’s Questions in Parliament, the opposition Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch laid into the government over its welfare U-turns. She said the Chancellor would now be forced to put up taxes to pay for the prime minister’s incompetence” and said Reeves “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.”
Reeves, who has repeatedly promised not to raise taxes, now faces the prospect of a large “black hole” in the government’s finances and the possibility of another humiliating reversal in her autumn budget.
Jane Hill presents BBC News at Ten reporting by political editor Chris Mason at Westminster.
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