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Reeves in tears at PMQs after 'altercations with Starmer and Speaker'
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Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
One year on from Starmer's election victory. Here's my report card
One year on from Starmer's election victory, how has he done? The British public say very badly indeed: Starmer's net favourability has fallen to the lowest level on record. But what's the full picture? Has he kept his promises? As I await my children's end of year reports, here's my report card for the Prime Minister. Immigration 1) Starmer promised time and again he would 'smash the gangs'. Unfortunately for the public, the gangs are smashing him. The number of migrants entering on small boats is up 48 per cent, despite a fall in illegal migration into Europe. Only a tiny fraction of people smugglers have been arrested and sentences for immigration offences are being watered down. Despite promising to end asylum hotels, Yvette Cooper has been busy opening more. In May it sounded as though the penny had dropped. Starmer said 'we risk becoming an island of strangers' and that mass migration had caused 'incalculable damage'. He was correct. But last week he said he regretted those comments and had just read them out like a ventriloquist's dummy. Starmer's aides were furious with him, calling his u-turn 'weak', and saying that he 'lacked moral fibre'. I couldn't have put it better myself. Healthcare 2) Starmer boldly claimed he would fix the NHS. He has managed to increase the number of NHS appointments by 8 per cent, which is welcome. But that is a smaller increase than Victoria Atkins delivered last year – and on other metrics, things are going backwards. A&E waiting times are higher than they were last year. Starmer has directed extra cash to the NHS, but without real reform, that money is going into a black hole of waste and inefficiency. With social care reform delayed until at least 2028, the fundamentals will remain poor. The NHS is still being treated as a religion, not a critical public service in need of reform. Economy 3) Labour promised they wouldn't increase National Insurance or change the fiscal rules. In office, they immediately did the opposite, raking in £25bn from the national insurance increase and borrowing an extra £142bn by the end of the parliament – causing growth forecasts to be downgraded. This £167 billion lie is surely one of the most brazen cons on the electorate in history. Ed Miliband promised to cut energy bills, yet experts say that bills are expected to increase next year. Meanwhile factory after factory is closing down. Vauxhall is closing in Luton. NEG in Wigan. Sabic in Teesside. We are haemorrhaging critical industries. Housing 4) Angela Rayner's flagship pledge was to build 1.5m new homes by the end of the Parliament. I admire the ambition, but her plan is destined to fail. Rayner slashed London's housing target by 20 per cent; 23 of London's 33 boroughs had zero new housing starts in the first quarter of this year. In any case, Labour can't build their way out of the housing crisis when 5 in 7 of their new homes are forecast to go to migrants. Justice 5) During the election, Starmer was happy to boast about his time as Director of Public Prosecutions. But in his first year, the court backlog increased, with 77,000 cases awaiting trial. His Justice Secretary introduced two-tier sentencing rules that were eventually defeated. Tens of dangerous prisoners were let out by mistake and thousands have been released after serving just a fraction of their sentence. Most embarrassingly, Starmer's plans to scrap short sentences for 'minor offences' prompted unprecedented warnings from MI5 that they would risk public safety. My conclusion? Starmer is a creature of our failed elite consensus and he's going down with it. A man unable to convey any purpose for his government or unifying vision for our country. Worse, he is now beholden to his hard-left backbenchers. As bad as things are today, things can always get worse.
Sky News
3 hours ago
- Sky News
Chancellor Rachel Reeves says she is 'totally' up for the job of chancellor in first comments since tearful PMQs
The chancellor has said she was having a "tough day" yesterday in her first public comments since appearing tearful at Prime Minister's Questions - but insisted she is "totally" up for the job. Rachel Reeves 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." She declined to give a reason behind the tears, saying "it was a personal issue" and "it wouldn't be right" to divulge it. "People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday. Today's a new day and I'm just cracking on with the job," she added. Ms Reeves also said she is "totally" up for the job of chancellor, saying: "This is the job that I've always wanted to do. I'm proud of what I've delivered as chancellor." Asked if she was surprised that Sir Keir Starmer did not back her more strongly during PMQs, she reiterated that she and the prime minister are a "team", saying: "We fought the election together, we changed the Labour Party together so that we could be in the position to return to power, and over the past year, we've worked in lockstep together." PM: 'I was last to appreciate' that Reeves was crying The chancellor's comments come after the prime minister told Sky News' political editor Beth Rigby that he "didn't appreciate" that she was crying behind him at Prime Minister's Questions yesterday because the weekly sessions are "pretty wild", which is why he did not offer her any support while in the chamber. He added: "It wasn't just yesterday - no prime minister ever has had side conversations during PMQs. It does happen in other debates when there's a bit more time, but in PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang. That's what it was yesterday. "And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that's just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation." 1:03 During PMQs, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch branded the chancellor the "human shield" for the prime minister's "incompetence" just hours after he was forced to perform a humiliating U-turn over his controversial welfare bill, leaving a "black hole" in the public finances. The prime minister's watered-down Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill was backed by a majority of 75 in a tense vote on Tuesday evening - but a total of 49 Labour MPs voted against the bill, which was the largest rebellion in a prime minister's first year in office since 47 MPs voted against Tony Blair's lone parent benefit in 1997, according to Professor Phil Cowley from Queen Mary University. Reeves looks transformed - but this has been a disastrous week for the PM It is a Rachel Reeves transformed that appears in front of the cameras today, nearly 24 hours since one of the most extraordinary PMQs. Was there a hint of nervousness as she started, aware of the world watching for any signs of human emotion? Was there a touch of feeling in her face as the crowds applauded her? People will speculate. But Ms Reeves has got through her first public appearance, and can now, she hopes, move on. The prime minister embraced her as he walked on stage, the health secretary talked her up: "Thanks to her leadership, we have seen wages rising faster than the cost of living." A show of solidarity at the top of government, a prime minister and chancellor trying to get on with business. But be in no doubt today's speech on a 10-year-plan for the NHS has been overshadowed. Not just by a chancellor in tears, but what that image represents. A PM who, however assured he appeared today, has marked his first year this week, as Sky News' political editor Beth Rigby put to him, with a "self-inflicted shambles". She asked: "How have you got this so wrong? How can you rebuild trust? Are you just in denial?" They are questions Starmer will be grappling with as he tries to move past a disastrous week. Ms Reeves has borne a lot of the criticism over the handling of the vote, with some MPs believing that her strict approach to fiscal rules has meant she has approached the ballooning welfare bill from the standpoint of trying to make savings, rather than getting people into work. Ms Badenoch also said the chancellor looked "absolutely miserable", and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election. Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she will, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: "How awful for the chancellor that he couldn't confirm that she would stay in place." Downing Street scrambled to make clear to journalists that Ms Reeves was "going nowhere", and the prime minister has since stated publicly that she will remain as chancellor "for many years to come".
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
The leadership rumours inside Labour that speak volumes about Starmer's future
The images of Rachel Reeves crying on the frontbenches during PMQs on Wednesday – just hours after the government was forced into a humiliating £5bn climbdown on welfare – were stark. It looked like Sir Keir Starmer's top team was on the brink of falling apart. But the following day, the prime minister came out fighting, insisting his chancellor – who also looked notably more cheery – was here to stay. A minister in tears would make news any day of the year. But on a day when questions over the prime minister's leadership were already splashed across the papers, just days before he was due to mark one year in office, the image was even more jarring for Labour – and only served to add fuel to growing questions about whether or not he is the right person for the job. For weeks now, there have been whisperings of a possible leadership bid by Angela Rayner. The housing secretary's repeated attempts to shut down the rumours – saying she has no desire to hold the top job – have done little to dampen speculation. The rumours speak volumes about the level of disaffection within the party over Sir Keir's leadership and the direction of government. Labour won a thumping majority at last year's general election. They had a clear mandate to deliver their so-called 'plan for change' and there was a real sense of optimism. But just one year on, that optimism is well and truly gone. After repeated attempts to reset the narrative, the prime minister's authority has been damaged, while brutal polling shows that voters have turned away. And this week's humiliating welfare debacle, which saw the PM gut his reforms entirely only to still be faced with the largest rebellion of his premiership so far – has only added to his mounting woes. Behind the scenes, there is now more wrangling than ever over where Labour goes next. If Tuesday's welfare vote proved anything, it's that Labour MPs are far more left-wing than their party's leader. Starmer has been attempting to pull the party to the right both to try to combat the threat posed by Reform, but also to deliver a government that meets the expectations of the British public. But as a result of failings in Downing Street, and obfuscations from his own MPs, it hasn't worked. There are now growing calls for a reset in No 10. The problem, however, is that this isn't the first time the prime minister has attempted to do so. We've seen repeated attempts to draw a line under previous mistakes and fumbles from the government, but no real change in direction. Despite Starmer's insistence that his chancellor is here to stay, there is a growing feeling that without a reshuffle, the PM will be unable to truly draw a line under the past year. If he can accompany that with both a clear plan to plug gaps in the public finances after several U-turns – including Tuesday's welfare chaos and previous rowbacks on winter fuel payments – alongside a genuine strategy to bring down immigration, he may be able to turn his fortunes around. But if that fails, and Starmer is unable to use a reshuffle to save some of his own authority, there is a small but growing chance the prime minister will be booted out before the next election. Championed by the so-called 'soft left', there is now a developing feeling within Labour that if the party, led by Rayner, provided a true left-wing offering (and did it well), that could be a far more effective counter to the divisive politics of Reform UK than Starmer's pragmatism. Especially given Nigel Farage's proposals to lift the two child benefit cap and restore winter fuel payments to all seem to have gone down remarkably well with the British public. But sitting to the right of Rayner is Wes Streeting – also seen as a strong contender to succeed the PM. He's well-liked by the party, as of last month being the third most popular Labour politician among party members – behind Rayner and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who is not currently a Labour MP. He's so far proven himself a safe pair of hands when it comes to the health service, and has led one of the few departments that seems to be somewhat successfully implementing the change they promised. While allies of both Streeting and Rayner are attempting to shut down fevered speculation over possible leadership bids, a number of party insiders see the local elections in May next year as the deadline for when a decision would need to be made on the party's future. But there is an important health warning that needs to accompany any talk of replacing Starmer. He won a massive majority. The Tory years, which saw Britain run by three different prime ministers in two months, shouldn't fool anyone into thinking replacing him will be an easy task. The only official way to remove an incumbent leader of the party is for 20 per cent of Labour MPs to nominate a willing candidate to stand against the leader, triggering a leadership contest. With Labour's current majority, that would require at least 80 MPs to get behind a single candidate – no easy task. Therefore, the chance of Starmer being replaced is, at present, small. But the clock is ticking. Voters are currently unconvinced that Labour is anything different from the '14 years of Tory failure' that Starmer so often talks about. Every day that this sentiment is allowed to fester, the likelihood of a coup increases.
