Kemi Badenoch described Rachel Reeves as looking ‘absolutely miserable’ at Prime Minister’s Questions after a tough day for the Chancellor.
Reeves appeared to cry on the front bench as Keir Starmer responded to the Conservative leader’s questions – and notably failed to confirm she would stay in her role until the next election.
Her sister, Labour Party chair Ellie Reeves, was seen holding her hand as they left the chamber together at the end of the session.
A Treasury spokesperson described the situation as ‘a personal matter’, adding it was something ‘we are not going to get into’.
They added: ‘The Chancellor will be working out of Downing Street this afternoon.’
At a briefing after PMQs, a Downing Street spokesperson said the Chancellor was ‘going nowhere’, arguing the PM had backed her several times before and did not need to explicitly repeat his support.
Sign up to Metro’s politics newsletter, Alright Gov?
Craig Munro breaks down Westminster chaos into easy to follow insight, walking you through what the latest policies mean to you. Sent every Wednesday. Sign up here.
Reeves is facing a serious economic dilemma after a bill aiming to bring down the UK’s welfare bill was gutted before being voted through yesterday evening.
As a result, billions of pounds in savings that might have eased the Chancellor’s job balancing the books will no longer happen.
Changes to Universal Credit were included in the final bill that passed its second reading, but changes to the Personal Independence Payment – where most of the savings were set to come from – were scrapped.
Instead, alterations to the disability benefit will come from a review by Work and Pensions minister Stephen Timms which is set to be published next autumn.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.