UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday said that finance minister Rachel Reeves would remain in her role for “a very long time to come” after she appeared visibly upset in parliament as rumours swirled around her future.
Tears rolled down Reeves’ face after Starmer declined to guarantee that she would remain in place until the next general election, likely in 2029.
It came after his Labour government U-turned over key welfare spending cuts, wiping out a multibillion-pound boost to public finances and triggering speculation that Reeves could lose her job.
The pound slumped more than one percent against the dollar on Wednesday and London’s stock market retreated amid the speculation.
A spokeswoman for Starmer later told reporters that Reeves had his “full backing”, while a spokesman for Reeves said she had been upset due to a “personal matter”.
“The Chancellor is going nowhere. She has the Prime Minister’s full backing,” Starmer’s press secretary said.
Asked why he had not confirmed faith in Reeves when asked in the House of Commons, she said: “He has done so repeatedly.”
“The Chancellor and the Prime Minister are focused entirely on delivering for working people,” she added.
Starmer later told the BBC that Reeves had done “an excellent job as chancellor” and would remain in the job for “a very long time to come”.
He said her tears at the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session had “nothing to do with politics” and it was “absolutely wrong” to suggest otherwise.
Asked about why Reeves was upset, her spokesman said in a statement: “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,” he said.
Starmer backed down on the welfare plans on Tuesday after a rebellion by MPs from his own party, in a major blow to his authority.
Starmer’s retreat on slashing benefits has left an almost GBP5 billion black hole in Reeves’s plans, leading to the possibility that she will have to raise taxes on “working people”, something that she has repeatedly ruled out.
Reeves has also ruled out tweaking her self-imposed rule that day-to-day spending should be met through tax receipts rather than borrowing.
