Rachel Reeves has said she is “cracking on with the job” of chancellor, after a very public show of unity from Keir Starmer after her visible distress in the Commons.
In her first comments since her tearful appearance at Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions, Reeves said she had been upset about a personal matter, and that the only real difference to someone else having a bad day at work was that she then had to be seen on television.
Reeves was speaking after she unexpectedly joined the prime minister and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, at the launch of the NHS 10-year plan at a health centre in east London, receiving hugs from both colleagues.
She made a brief speech at the launch, between Streeting and Starmer, but did not mention Wednesday’s events, talking only about the fiscal foundations of the NHS plan and calling the proposals “good for the health of our nation and good for the health of our nation’s finances”.
But speaking to TV reporters afterwards, Reeves said the reason for her upset was a personal issue unconnected to politics, insisting she was now fine.
“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,” she said. “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 rejected suggestions that her upset was connected to an interaction with Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons speaker, or with a government colleague.
“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.
During a Q&A session with Starmer after his speech at the NHS event, a number of reporters directed questions to Reeves – but without reply.
Starmer also refused to discuss what prompted Reeves’s upset. He said: “She has made clear on a number of occasions that yesterday was a personal issue, and I am certainly not going to say anything more about that. I think it’s fantastic that she is here, and none of this would be happening if she hadn’t taken the decisions that she’s taken.”
Asked if he should have noticed what was happening during PMQs and consoled the chancellor, Starmer said that was unrealistic given the format of the Commons exchanges.
“I didn’t appreciate what was happening because, as you’ll probably appreciate, PMQs is pretty wired,” he said. “It goes from question to question and I am literally up, down, question, looking at who is asking me a question, thinking about my response and getting up and answering it.”
He added: “It wasn’t just yesterday. No prime minister ever has had side conversations in PMQs. It does happen in other debates when there is a bit more time, but in PMQs it is bang, bang, bang, bang.
“That is what it was yesterday and therefore I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber.”
Asked if Reeves had been summoned to the NHS event “to look performatively happy in front of the cameras”, Starmer said: “I don’t think that’s an accurate or fair description.”
Reeves has been under intense pressure, with her task of balancing already tight public finances made even harder after the government’s concessions to Labour MPs over plans to change welfare, which have obliterated the planned-for £5bn savings a year.
Downing Street has insisted that Reeves’s position is not under any threat. Speculation that she might resign or be forced out had pushed up borrowing costs and led the pound to fall against the dollar and euro, with markets rallying after Starmer publicly backed her.
The Conservatives have been unsympathetic to Reeves’s distress, with Kemi Badenoch telling Starmer at PMQs that she was “toast”, and Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, saying that if a chief executive cried in public they “would not be forgiven for it”.
