Sir Keir Starmer has backed Rachel Reeves to be Chancellor “into the next election and for many years after” after her tearful appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions.
The Prime Minister said it was “absolutely wrong” to suggest the Chancellor’s tears in the Commons related to the welfare U-turn - which put a near-£5billion black hole in her plans - and admitted the Government failed to properly engage with rebel MPs who forced ministers into the climbdown.
“It’s got nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with what’s happened this week. It was a personal matter for her,” he told the BBC’s podcast Political Thinking with Nick Robinson.
See also: A year that ends in tears - Rachel Reeves's time in number 11
Asked if Ms Reeves would remain in her post, the Prime Minister said: “She will be Chancellor by the time this is broadcast, she will be Chancellor for a very long time to come, she is going to be Chancellor into the next election.....”
Markets took fright on Wednesday afternoon after scenes of Ms Reeves’s tears spread, with the value of the pound and long-term Government bonds slumping sharply, before recovering.
Sir Keir told Virgin Radio on Thursday that he had spoken to the Chancellor the previous evening and she was "fine".
He said that "in politics, you're on show the whole time, there's no hiding place".
He added: "But like all human beings, we're also personal.
"There are moments that catch us off guard and if you're in front of a camera for large periods of your life, unfortunately, that could be caught on camera in a way, if it had been anybody else at work, it would have not really been noticed."
In the Commons on Wednesday, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Ms Reeves looked “absolutely miserable” and challenged the Prime Minister to say whether she would keep her job until the next election.
Sir Keir dodged the question about whether Ms Reeves would be in place for the remainder of the Parliament, saying Mrs Badenoch “certainly won’t”.
Downing Street then insisted Ms Reeves was “going nowhere” and will remain as Chancellor.
Allies, meanwhile, said she was dealing with a “personal matter” when asked about her tears.
Sir Keir, who stumbled on his way out of Downing Street for Prime Minister’s Questions, faced questions over his handling of a welfare reform package, which has been stripped of key elements to limit the scale of a Labour revolt.
Changes to restrict eligibility for the personal independence payment (Pip) were abandoned on Tuesday, just 90 minutes before MPs voted on them, wiping out the savings that Ms Reeves had counted on to help meet her goal of funding day-to-day spending through tax receipts rather than borrowing.
As the Chancellor left the Commons after Prime Minister’s Questions, her sister, Ellie Reeves, took her hand in an apparent show of support.
Reports suggested Ms Reeves had been involved in an altercation with Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle shortly before Prime Minister’s Questions.
Sir Lindsay was said to have censured Ms Reeves for her approach to Treasury Questions earlier in the week, and the Chancellor reportedly responded that she had been “under so much pressure”.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting, on the media round for the Government on Thursday, said he had spoken to Ms Reeves and stressed she would “bounce back”, adding that she is a “tough cookie”.
Labour has promised that income tax, employee national insurance contributions and VAT will not be increased, restricting Ms Reeves’s options for raising money if she does look to hike taxes.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies’s incoming director, Helen Miller, said: “Since departmental spending plans are now effectively locked in, and the Government has already had to row back on planned cuts to pensioner benefits and working-age benefits, tax rises would look increasingly likely.
“This will doubtless intensify the speculation over the summer about which taxes may rise and by how much.”
Sir Keir declined to rule out tax rises later this year, telling MPs: “No prime minister or chancellor ever stands at the despatch box and writes budgets in the future.”
