CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves has broken her silence on her tears in the House of Commons yesterday.
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”. Meanwhile Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Reeves would “bounce back” as he praised her “leadership” on the economy.
Now, Reeves has declined to give the reason behind her tears, but appeared to reject suggestions that her tears at Prime Minister’s Questions were related to a conversation with Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle or another member of Government.
She told broadcasters: “Clearly I was upset yesterday and everyone could see that. It was a personal issue and I’m not going to go into the details of that.
“My job as Chancellor at 12 o’clock on a Wednesday is to be at PMQs next to the Prime Minister, supporting the Government and that’s what I tried to do.
“I guess the thing that maybe is a bit different between my job and many of your viewers’ is that when I’m having a tough day it’s on the telly and most people don’t have to deal with that.”
Asked whether her tears were connected to a conversation with the Speaker, the Chancellor told broadcasters: “No, it was a personal issue, and I’m not going into the details of that.
“It wouldn’t be right or fair. People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday. Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.
“My job as Chancellor is to return the stability to the economy, bring investment into Britain, but most importantly to improve the lives of ordinary working people, which is why I’m so pleased that in this first year interest rates have come down four times, saving money for people with mortgages, I’ve been the Chancellor who’s increased the national living wage … so I’m proud of what we’ve done this last year.
“But is there more to do as a Government? Absolutely there is, and I’m going to get on with that job.”
Will taxes be hiked?
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, Stride appeared to distance himself from Robert Jenrick, who had earlier posted a video on social media describing Reeves’s career as “dead”.
But he added that Jenrick was making a “valid” point that the Government had “lost control of the economy”, laying the blame with the Chancellor and Starmer and warning of tax rises to come.
Reeves said “of course there is a cost” to the welfare changes voted for in Parliament when asked if there would be tax rises in the budget.
Asked whether taxes would be hiked, the Chancellor said: “I’m to going to speculate because the budget will be in the autumn… We’ll get a new forecast and we’ll do the budget later this year.
“But of course there is a cost to the welfare changes that Parliament voted through this week and that will be reflected in the budget.
“But I’m also very, very clear that that stability that we’ve been able to return to the economy which has enabled the Bank of England to cut interests rates four times is only possible because of the fiscal discipline which is underpinned by the fiscal rules.
“And we’ll be sticking to those because they’re absolutely vital for the living standards of working people and also the costs that businesses face.”
