Chancellor Rachel Reeves has made a surprise appearance alongside Sir Keir Starmer, one day after she was seen crying at Prime Minister’s Questions.
Helping to unveil the government’s 10-year plan for the NHS, she was smiling and embraced the prime minister as they jointly set out the government’s 10-year plan for the NHS.
The pound plummeted and government borrowing costs rose after the incident in Parliament on Wednesday, when Sir Keir initially failed to guarantee that Reeves would keep her job.
The fall was partially reversed after Sir Keir insisted he was “in lockstep” with his chancellor, who he said would be in her job “for a very long time to come”.
In a bid to put on a united front, the chancellor joined Sir Keir and Health Secretary Wes Streeting at a hospital in East London to launch plans for new neighbourhood health centres.
She gave a short speech but made no reference to her tears in Parliament and did not take questions from journalists.
Sir Keir praised his chancellor, telling the audience that decisions made by Reeves had allowed the government to “invest record amounts in the NHS”.
Asked if he had been aware that his chancellor had been crying next to him in the House of Commons, Sir Keir said he “hadn’t appreciated what was happening” as he was “literally up and down” answering questions.
“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.”
He said the incident was due to “a personal issue and I am certainly not going to say anything more about that”.
Speculation about Reeves’ future had been growing after Labour rebels forced the government to give up some of its welfare reforms and in so doing put a £5bn hole in the chancellor’s spending plans.
In order to meet her self-imposed borrowing rules, she is now likely to have to consider cutting public spending or raising taxes at the Budget in autumn.
Asked if taxes would be going up, he replied: “No prime minister or chancellor is going to write a Budget in advance.”