Reeves has made herself unsackable by crying at PMQs, claim Labour critics

Telegraph

3 days ago

Rachel Reeves has made herself unsackable by crying at Prime Minister's Questions, Labour critics have claimed.
The Chancellor's display of emotion in the Commons on Wednesday was followed by Sir Keir Starmer giving her his unequivocal backing.
The Prime Minister committed to keeping Ms Reeves in the Cabinet for the rest of his first term as colleagues publicly rallied around the Chancellor, who said she was dealing with an unexplained 'personal issue' when she burst into tears.
However, a government source complained that Sir Keir 'seems to have tied himself to her' after her tears, which triggered a £3bn market sell-off and crash in the value of sterling.
'I thought at the beginning of Wednesday she would go, then thought it was confirmed when I saw her crying at PMQs, but then she didn't,' said the source.
Another source said Ms Reeves had enjoyed an 'outpouring of sympathy' over an incident that was still 'inescapably linked to the political facts' of the welfare rebellion.
A third added that being pictured distraught on television had 'shored up her position'.
One insider said that, since Monday, the mood in Whitehall has transitioned from 'head in hands' over the welfare rebellion to the 'surreal horror' of watching Ms Reeves cry in the Commons.
'The dark clouds were descending,' said another source. 'Not in a terminal sense, but that everything was going wrong at once.'
Some Labour MPs have privately suggested that the Chancellor should be sacked for her opposition to reducing the benefit cuts.
Ms Reeves and Sir Keir put on a united front on Thursday, hugging in front of the cameras as they launched the Government's health strategy.
The Chancellor said: 'People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday. Today's a new day and I'm just cracking on with the job.' She later added that 'when I'm having a tough day it's on the telly, and most people don't have to deal with that'.
Sir Keir said politicians are 'humans in the end' as he praised Ms Reeves, adding that she would serve in her role 'for many years to come'. Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, said: 'She is a tough character. She is resilient, and she will bounce back'
The Telegraph understands that the Chancellor also spoke to Angela Rayner, with whom she has previously had a difficult relationship, about the emotional episode on either Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
Rumours that her tears came after a row with either Sir Keir or Ms Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, were denied on Wednesday.
While Ms Reeves is now considered safe, there is still talk of a reshuffle of other Cabinet ministers, their aides or more junior colleagues.
Some advisers think Sir Keir will launch a 'reset' just before the parliamentary summer break, which begins on July 22, to allow new ministers to familiarise themselves with their brief before the Labour Party conference at the end of September.
Others think the Prime Minister is more likely to wait until early in the new year, noting that he 'seldom rushes things' and has a tendency to give members of his team plenty of time to improve before sacking them.
The PMQs session followed a week of tense negotiation between the Government and Labour rebels, who forced almost £5 billion in concessions on Sir Keir's benefits reforms.
Ms Reeves, who opposed a Government U-turn, will now be forced to find that money in her autumn Budget, on top of existing commitments and a black hole of around £20bn. She has promised to do that without breaching Labour's fiscal rules or raising any of the 'big three' taxes – VAT, National Insurance and income tax.
Treasury sources insist that the fiscal situation could improve later this year if the cost of servicing government debt falls or Britain experiences significant economic growth.
But there is a consensus in other departments that Ms Reeves is now boxed in by her previous commitments.
'I can't see how she can pull it off after all the promises she has made,' said one source. Another added: 'She's in an impossible position, but that wasn't a secret. Now it's even more impossible.'
A new poll by YouGov, published on Thursday, showed almost three-quarters of voters now expect Labour to break its manifesto pledge to not raise the three largest taxes.
'My guess is that we will keep to those promises, but there are decisions to be taken,' a source said. 'We didn't want to come in and raise taxes last year, but circumstances meant we had to do something.'
There is disagreement over how politically damaging it would be for Labour to break its manifesto pledges on tax, after a year of turmoil with the election of Donald Trump and war in the Middle East.
It may not be mathematically possible to raise as much as Ms Reeves requires in the autumn without touching those taxes. Freezing income tax thresholds, which would not be a manifesto breach, would raise around £10 billion, while some form of wealth tax or higher rate of capital gains tax could make up some of the rest of the shortfall.
But higher taxes of any kind are unlikely to be popular, regardless of whether they come as a surprise to the public.
'Is the Treasury orthodoxy running Britain without any political lens?' asked a source. 'They are just looking at a column on a spreadsheet that says they need £5bn and they go to another column in the Budget and get it from there, without thinking about the politics.'