UK’s Rachel Reeves says she is ‘getting on with the job’ after tears in parliament

A day after crying in parliament, Rachel Reeves was all smiles as she made a show of unity with Keir Starmer.

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves were all smiles on Thursday. Picture: Jack Hill/ AFP

Rachel Reeves insists she is “totally” up to the job of UK chancellor a day after she was seen crying in parliament and rumours about her future triggered a major sell-off in government bonds.

Ms Reeves was all smiles as she made a show of unity with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at an event for the NHS on Thursday, telling journalists she was “clearly upset” in the House of Commons yesterday but declined to detail what had made her distressed.

“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 (Prime Minister’s Questions) next to the prime minister, supporting the government, and that’s what I tried to do.”

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves appeared tearful during the Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday

The pound sank on Wednesday and investors sold off UK government bonds after Sir Keir declined to guarantee Ms Reeves would remain in her role until the next general election during PMQs.

He later clarified she was doing an excellent job and would remain as chancellor “into the next election and for many years after.” Speculation about Ms Reeves’s future came after the government made an extraordinary backdown on its flagship welfare reforms in the face of rebellion from Labour MPs.

In her first public comments since PMQs, Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to the job of running the UK economy.

“This is the job I have always wanted to do, I am proud of what I have delivered as chancellor,” she told reporters.

“Look, I think all of your viewers have had tough days. I happened to be on camera when I had a tough day, but today is a new day and I am just getting on with the job.”

L Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves share an embrace during a visit to the Sir Ludwig Guttman Health & Wellbeing Centre on Thursday. Picture: Jack Hill – WPA Pool/Getty Images

Asked whether she was surprised that the Prime Minister had not backed her more strongly in parliament, she said: “I think that people can see that Keir and me are a team”.

“We fought the election together, we changed the Labour Party together so that we could be in the position to return to power,” she said.

“Over the past year we’ve worked in lock-step together whether that is on the budget, on the spending review or indeed on our measures to improve public services like the ten-year plan for the NHS.”

Earlier, Sir Keir told Sky News UK that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeces was crying behind him in parliament because because the weekly PMQ sessions were “pretty wild”.

“It wasn’t just yesterday – no prime minister ever has had side conversations during PMQs. It does happen in other debates when there’s a bit more time, but in PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang. That’s what it was yesterday,” he said.

“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”