Sir Keir Starmer has taken responsibility for the U-turn on welfare reforms, saying his Government did not “get the process right” as he gave his full backing to his Chancellor.
Speaking to the BBC in his first interview since a threatened backbench revolt forced him to strip out a major part of his welfare reform plan, he acknowledged the past few days had been “tough”.
He said: “Labour MPs are absolutely vested in this. It matters to them to get things like this right, and we didn’t get that process right. We didn’t engage in the way that we should have done.”
But he insisted his Government would “come through it stronger” as he vowed to “reflect” on what needed to be done “to ensure we don’t get into a situation like that again”.
Sir Keir also gave his full support to Chancellor Rachel Reeves after she was seen crying during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
Ms Reeves’s visibly tearful appearance in the Commons came amid speculation that her job was at risk after the welfare U-turn put an almost £5 billion hole in her spending plans.
But the Prime Minister insisted her appearance had “nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with what’s happened this week” and was “a personal matter”.
Asked if she would remain in her post, he said: “She will be Chancellor for a very long time to come, because this project that we’ve been working on to change the Labour Party, to win the election, change the country, that is a project which the Chancellor and I’ve been working on together.”
On Thursday morning, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Ms Reeves would “bounce back” as he praised her “leadership” on the economy.
He also dismissed a suggestion that Sir Keir himself could be at risk, telling Sky News: “Keir Starmer has been consistently underestimated.
“I wonder when people will learn. They said he couldn’t win the Labour leadership, but he did. They said he couldn’t change the Labour Party, but he did. They said he couldn’t take the Labour Party from its worst defeat since the 1930s to election victory last year, and he did.
“And now the cynics say he can’t change the country, but he will.”
But Conservative shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said the scenes in the Commons over the past week had left bond markets “twitchy” about the Government and “their ability to actually grip things like spending going forward”.
Appearing on BBC Breakfast, Sir Mel appeared to distance himself from Robert Jenrick, who had earlier posted a video on social media describing Ms Reeves’s career as “dead”.
But he added that Mr Jenrick was making a “valid” point that the Government had “lost control of the economy”, laying the blame with the Chancellor and Sir Keir and warning of tax rises to come.
