The Chancellor has finally spoken out on the day she cried at PMQs – insisting she is ‘not gonna apologise’ because everyone gets ‘overcome with emotion’ sometimes.
Rachel Reeves opened up about the ‘stressful time’ in an interview with Mumsnet on Tuesday, where she was also probed on benefits handouts and sluggish economic growth.
It follows extraordinary scenes in July last year where the 47–year–old arrived to the Commons with puffy eyes – sitting by Keir Starmer as tears rolled down both cheeks and her bottom lip wobbled.
Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts presented the Chancellor with a series of questions from users on the online chat forum.
One such query read: ‘Hi Rachel, you were pictured crying at PMQs last year, and that must have been a stressful time for you.
‘Do you now regret that incident or do you feel that people should be less judged for showing often understandable emotions in the workplace?’
Ms Reeves smiled at the question and admitted she ‘regretted going to PMQs’.
She added: ‘But you know, if I’d have known that was going to happen, obviously I wouldn’t have gone.
‘I expect most of your Mumsnet users would’ve had a day at work when they felt overcome with emotion for whatever reason.’
The Chancellor also pointed out her job is ‘different’ as ‘the TV cameras are on when that happens’.
But she defiantly added: ‘So I’m not gonna apologise for crying.
‘I don’t think people should do that.’
Though, Ms Reeves concluded: ‘But I think next time I feel like doing that, I’ll stay in the office.’
Ms Roberts responded: ‘Do you lie awake at night kicking yourself for going?’
To which the Chancellor laughed, and said: ‘I’ve got enough things to worry about at the moment – there’s the conflict in the Middle East rather than pictures of me looking a little bit upset.’
Ms Reeves’s Commons breakdown came at a time her position was under intense scrutiny following the Government’s humiliating U–turn on welfare cuts in the face of a rebellion by Labour MPs.
Asked about her upset appearance, a spokesman for the Chancellor then said it was a ‘personal matter’ that ‘we are not going to get into’.
The tearful display prompted Downing Street to issue a statement confirming Ms Reeves had Sir Keir’s ‘full backing’ and, despite speculation about her future was ‘going nowhere’.
Nevertheless, the pound fell sharply and the Government’s borrowing costs jumped as rumours swirled she could be heading for the exit, taking Labour’s remaining fiscal credibility with her.
No 10 flatly denied claims the PM and Chancellor had an angry showdown – and reports of a bust–up with then-Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner were also denied.
However, a Whitehall source said the Chancellor revealed she was feeling the heat following a disastrous period for the Government.
Despite her obvious distress, the PM did not appear to speak to Ms Reeves as he marched out of the chamber for two hours of crisis meetings with MPs.
It was left to the Chancellor’s sister MP Ellie Reeves to offer comfort to her – the two sisters leaving the chamber hand in hand.
Today’s interview with Mumsnet also saw Ms Reeves probed on benefits handouts.
One person asked: ‘Can you please list the groups of people who are feeling better off now, aside from benefits claimants and unions?’
Ms Reeves insisted the ‘whole point of the welfare state is it’s there when you need it’.
She said: ‘I think this sort of “people on benefits and people not on benefits” – it’s just not as simple as that.’
And she added that ‘people who work in public services should be paid properly’.
Questioned on sluggish economic growth, Ms Reeves said: ‘Our country has been through a number of very difficult years and we are starting, we are putting in place the policies to start to turn that around and we’ve got the right plan, the right economic plan.
‘If you look at last year, we were the fastest growing European country in the G7, wages having increased by more than inflation in every month since I became Chancellor.
‘And as of the beginning of this month, because of the changes that we’ve made to the two-child limit within Universal Credit, 450,000 fewer children will be in poverty than they were before.’
A damning report today revealed the UK economy is expected to grow by just 0.8 per cent this year – as soaring energy prices batter households and businesses already straining under Labour’s tax hikes.
The growth forecast, by the International Monetary Fund, is 0.5 percentage points lower than it anticipated in January – marking the biggest downgrade of any nation in the G7.
The IMF also cut the outlook for next year by 0.2 percentage points to a feeble 1.3 per cent.
And it warned that UK inflation will head towards 4 per cent while unemployment is set to reach 5.6 per cent.
That would be the highest rate since early 2015 – outstripping the peak of 5.3 per cent seen during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The IMF added that things could be even worse with a global recession ‘a close call’ if the war intensifies.
The projections leave Labour’s vow to turn Britain into the fastest growing nation in the G7 in tatters and make a mockery of the Chancellor’s claims to have put the UK ‘in a stronger position because of the choices this Government took to build economic stability’.
Ms Reeves, who is at the IMF’s spring meetings in Washington DC this week, insisted she has ‘the right plan for a more volatile world’ and called on others to follow her lead.
But in a further setback, the IMF said it now expects living standards in the UK to barely grow this year, with output per person set to rise by just 0.3 per cent – the weakest in the G7.
