Rachel Reeves was seen apparently weeping during Prime Minister’s Questions today as Keir Starmer faced a battering over his welfare reforms humiliation.
The Chancellor was sitting next to Sir Keir when a tear appeared to roll down her cheek as Kemi Badenoch demanded a guarantee she would stay in Number 11 – something the Prime Minister notably failed to provide.
Just a year on from his election landslide, Sir Keir’s authority has been left in tatters after his extraordinary surrender to avert defeat at the hands of Labour rebels over benefits reforms.
The Conservative leader told the House that Starmer had made “mistake after mistake”, highlighting volte faces over grooming gangs and winter fuel allowance.
Ms Badenoch also pointed to a grim-faced Rachel Reeves sitting next to the PM, saying she looked “miserable.
In an extraordinary moment during the exchanges, Ms Reeves appeared to become emotional as pressure mounted over Labour’s economic troubles.
Last night Sir Keir effectively tore up his benefits reforms, which had been due to shave £5billion a year off spiralling costs by the end of the Parliament. The watered-down package will now actually increase spending by £100million.
The move heaps fresh misery on Ms Reeves, who was already struggling to fill a black hole in the public finances that could amount to tens of billions of pounds.
Touring broadcast studios this morning, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden warned there would be “financial consequences” from the benefits U-turn – hinting that the tax burden will need to rise again.
This is one moving part of the budgetary picture, it does have a financial consequence yesterday,” McFadden told BBC Breakfast.
Asked explicitly whether he could rule out tax rises, Mr McFadden said: “I’m not going to speculate on the budget.
Ms Reeves has insisted Labour will stick to manifesto pledges of no hikes to income tax, employee National Insurance or VAT. But she refused to guarantee yesterday that the hated freeze in tax thresholds will not be extended.
Deputy PM Angela Rayner is said to have brokered the deal with rebels, fueling speculation that she is positioning to succeed Sir Keir.
Opponents jibed it is obvious that Sir Keir will not now lead the party into the next election.
Appearing on ITV’s Lorraine show, Ms Rayner insisted she did not want the top job, joking that it would “age me by 10 years.
Told that Sir Keir looked “tired” and “exhausted”, she said: “It’s a very challenging job. To be fair for Keir Starmer there’s been a lot going on. There’s a lot going on and the PM’s been here there and everywhere doing the job for Britain.”
Amid carnage at Westminster yesterday, the PM’s carefully assembled truce with rebels dramatically disintegrated.
Facing the threat of a massive revolt, Sir Keir opted to make yet another major concession just 90 minutes before the vote.
Ministers pledged that changes to disability handouts will not be finalised until after a review – meaning that the package as it stands will actually make the current system more expensive than before up to 2029.
Sir Keir had already agreed that the benefits curbs would only apply to new claimants.
There was mocking laughter in the chamber as Social Security Minister Stephen Timms was asked how much the proposals would save now, and merely replied that the government would “set out figures in the usual way”.
Despite the humiliating manoeuvres, when the vote was held 44 Labour MPs still backed the fatal amendment and others abstained – although it was comfortably defeated by 328 to 149 as Tories largely stayed away.
Shortly afterwards, the Bill cleared second reading stage by 335 to 260, with the rebellion growing to 49.
Rebel ringleaders gloated that they had “power” over the PM and stepped up demands for a lurch to the Left.
Rachael Maskell, whose fatal amendment sparked the benefits shambles, urged a £24billion “wealth tax” to pay for more handouts.
We need to look at those with the broader shoulders contributing more into our system,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“And that’s why I think we heard very much in the debate, including from myself, that we need to look at things like a wealth tax, £24 billion, or equalisation of capital gains tax.”
Ms Rayner said Ms Reeves would have to “look” at the finances in the Autumn after the benefits overhaul.
“That does have a cost to it… that will have to be set out in the Budget in the normal way. Rachel, our chancellor, will have to look at the challenges we face,” she said.
Polling expert Professor Sir John Curtice has referred to Sir Keir’s first year in office as “the worst start for any newly elected prime minister.
He told Times Radio that the PM was “never especially popular” and that “the public still don’t know what he stands for.”
The benefits rebellion represents the largest challenge yet to Sir Keir’s authority, with welfare reform now effectively dead in the water
Image credit:
Prime Minister’s Questions, 4 September 2024. Photo by UK Parliament, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.
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