LABOUR minister Ellie Reeves appeared to be holding her sister’s hand as she left the chamber on Wednesday, after Chancellor Rachel Reeves appeared to be crying during Prime Minister’s Questions.
Reeves was seen to cry in the Commons as Keir Starmer declined to guarantee she would remain in place until the election.
The Prime Minister faced MPs after being forced to scrap key planks of his welfare reforms, leaving an almost £5 billion black hole in Reeves’ spending plans and fuelling speculation she could be forced to hike taxes.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Reeves looked “absolutely miserable” and challenged the Prime Minister to say whether the Chancellor would keep her job until the next election.
Starmer dodged the question about whether Reeves would be in place for the remainder of the Parliament, saying Badenoch “certainly won’t”.
The Tory leader said: “How awful for the Chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”
As the Chancellor left the Commons after Prime Minister’s Questions her sister, Ellie Reeves, took her hand in an apparent show of support.
Asked about her tears, a spokesman for the Chancellor said: “It’s a personal matter which, as you would expect, we are not going to get into.
“The Chancellor will be working out of Downing Street this afternoon.”
Reports suggested Reeves had been involved in an altercation with Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle shortly before Prime Minister’s Questions.
A spokeswoman for the Speaker said: “No comment.”
Asked why Starmer did not confirm in the Commons that he still had faith in Reeves, the Prime Minister’s press secretary told reporters: “He has done so repeatedly.
“The Chancellor is going nowhere. She has the Prime Minister’s full backing.
“He has said it plenty of times, he doesn’t need to repeat it every time the Leader of the Opposition speculates about Labour politicians.”
Asked whether the Prime Minister still had confidence in Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, the press secretary said: “Yes.”
