Why Reeves was left in tears at Prime Minister's Questions
No wonder.
Sir Keir Starmer's last-minute decision to gut his Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill has left her with tough choices ahead.
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The Bill was supposed to bring down welfare spending by £5 billion — now it's going to cost millions.
It has also undermined the Chancellor's position. She faced down Cabinet opposition to the reforms, telling reporters during a visit to Babcock in Rosyth in March that the Government needed to 'get a grip' on the ballooning welfare bill.
Tuesday's last-minute decision to U-turn on plans to make it tougher to apply for Personal Independence Payment leaves her with no grip at all.
If she wants to keep her fiscal rule — that current spending must be paid for from tax receipts — she now only really has two options: hike taxes, or implement swingeing spending cuts.
'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,' said Badenoch during PMQs.
'In January, he said that she would be in post until the next election. Will she really?' she asked.
Sir Keir, incredibly, avoided the question.
It was only an hour later that No 10 said the Chancellor is going nowhere.
'The Chancellor is going nowhere. She has the Prime Minister's full backing,' a spokesperson said.
'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.
'The Chancellor and the Prime Minister are focused entirely on delivering for working people.
'It's thanks to the Chancellor's management of the economy that we managed to restore stability, which has led to four interest rate cuts, wages rising faster than inflation, and she recently delivered a spending review that invested in Britain's national renewal.'
As the Government — with its 165-seat majority — stumbles towards its first year in office, battered by U-turns, self-inflicted wounds, it does not necessarily feel like stability has been restored.
And there aren't just questions over the future of the Chancellor but the Prime Minister himself.
Bookies Coral have Sir Keir odds-on at 8/11 not to be leader of Labour at the next general election.
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