Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have put on a public display of unity a day after she cried in the Commons.
The chancellor was visibly distressed during prime minister’s questions, with Starmer seemingly unaware despite sitting beside her.
A spokesman for the chancellor said it was “a personal matter”, but it later emerged that she had had a verbal altercation with Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle shortly before PMQs.
Starmer refused to guarantee she would stay in her job after being quizzed by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, prompting speculation that she was on the verge of resigning or being sacked.
The PM has since insisted Reeves will remain chancellor “for a very long time”.
The pair hugged today at the launch of the government’s 10-year strategy for the NHS at a health centre in east London.
Reeves did not make any reference to her tears in the Commons as she said it was “great to be here” with Starmer.
Rachel Reeves at the NHS launch.The PM said: “I think it’s just fantastic she’s here and, as I say, none of this would be happening if she hadn’t taken the decisions that she’s taken.
“So she took those decisions, and she would take them for many years to come.”
Starmer also defended his failure not to console Reeves in the Commons on Wednesday, insisting he had been unaware of her distress.
He said: “I didn’t appreciate what was happening because, as you will probably appreciate, PMQs is pretty wired. 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.
“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.
“That is just a straightforward human explanation.”
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