Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are tied to each other now

Whatever difficult decisions lie ahead for Labour, the prime minister and chancellor’s grinning show of unity made it clear they will face them together.

Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves embraced at a carefully managed appearance to announce plans for the NHS. Photo by Jack Hill - WPA Pool/Getty Images

It was as carefully choreographed as it gets. A day after Rachel Reeves broke down in the Commons - a moment so unexpected it took her closest friends and allies by surprise - the chancellor attempted to get back on the front foot.

First, an unscheduled public appearance alongside Sir Keir Starmer to launch the NHS’s ten-year plan in a very public show of unity. The prime minister embraced her, praised her for doing a “fantastic” job and made clear she was going nowhere.

Then she faced the cameras. “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday (Thursday),” she said. “Today’s a new day and I’m cracking on with the job.” Her explanation was simple - she was having a bad day. While refusing to elaborate on the precise nature of the “personal issues” that led to her tears, she insisted they were nothing to do with her professional life.

The result appears to be that Starmer and Reeves are irrevocably wedded to one another. After the government’s disastrous handling of welfare reforms, and the retreat that followed, speculation was rife about Reeves.

Her tears, and Starmer’s failure to endorse her during prime minister’s questions, led to frenzied speculation. There were claims that she had had a row with No 10, that she had clashed with Angela Rayner; all were denied.

In the end the reaction of the bond markets may have saved her. The cost of government borrowing had shot up because bond traders were worried that Reeves could be sacked and replaced by a chancellor with a more liberal approach to her “iron-clad” fiscal rules. Starmer’s endorsement yesterday (Thursday), saying she would be his chancellor not just in this parliament but the one after should he win the next election, calmed the markets.

Reeves was in tears during prime minister’s questions on Wednesday. Picture: AFP/Getty Images

Allies believe that the markets gave her their tacit endorsement, baulking at the prospect of replacing her. They also believe that she is in a better position for the difficult decisions that are to come. The U-turn on benefit cuts was costly, representing a hit to the exchequer of about £5 billion. Economists believe that Reeves will have no choice but to raise taxes in the autumn, which she is now openly suggesting.

Allies say that the Labour MPs who opposed her welfare reforms will have to own those tax rises.

Reeves’s critics do not agree. One government source said of her performance yesterday (Thursday) morning that they felt like they were being “gaslit”, that Starmer and Reeves were behaving as if nothing had happened.

That U-turn on welfare, the disastrous handling of the parliamentary party and Reeves’s tears were treated like something in the distant past rather than events that had taken place in the past 48 hours.

Reeves and Starmer, who announced the NHS plan with Wes Streeting, still face difficult decisions at the next budget. Picture: Jack Hill / POOL / AFP

Reeves’s first public appearance was meticulously stage-managed. Sitting alongside Starmer and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, she spoke only briefly and the prime minister batted away questions about her public breakdown.

She was pictured throwing her head back laughing, in sharp contrast to the photographs that had appeared on the front of many newspapers that morning.

“I’m trying not to stand here and speak for the chancellor, but as she’s made clear on a number of occasions, yesterday (Thursday) was a personal issue, and I’m ... not going to say anything more about that,” Starmer said.

On her future he added: “It’s just fantastic she’s here. None of this would be happening if she hadn’t taken the decisions that she’s taken. She [will] take them for many years to come.”

The Times