Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to believe Rachel Reeves was crying because

817 replies

LargeDeviation · 02/07/2025 19:44

  1. she was upset when Lindsay Hoyle told her to keep her answers short

  2. she had an argument with Keir Starmer (possibly about her keeping her job, or about how to handle the inevitable questions about the new £5.5bn per annum black hole) just before PMQs

  3. Keir Starmer refused to say she would keep her job in front of the whole country. If he genuinely wanted her to stay, he would just say 'of course she's going to still be Chancellor' and that would be that.

  4. she is under immense pressure because she knows she will have soon to breach her fiscal rules, she knows she is responsible for many of the decisions that will lead to that, and she knows the how serious the consequences of her failure will be. We have seen recently (even just today) how vicious the bond market can be.

In short, I believe she was crying because of professional pressures (understandable ones, though largely of her own making, and about which I have little sympathy) and not nebulous 'personal' reasons.

If her parent or partner or child or grandparent or pet is ill the natural thing is to just say 'sorry, a close relative is in hospital and my emotions got the better of me'. Everybody would understand. You don't need huge reams of evidence but you need to give the bare bones of an explanation. She is trying to style it out but we can all see through it.

I will apologise if I'm wrong but long experience shows that 'personal reasons' almost always means 'I'm skiving or jobhunting' when a colleague in the workplace uses it to excuse their time off.

I believe it means even less when uttered by a politican.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
MyNameIsX · 02/07/2025 21:27

Imdoodleladie · 02/07/2025 21:25

Other than Liz Truss that is! When she first came out from self exile she did look embarassed and unhappy. Now because she has been proven right about a lot of things, she is as happy as I've ever seen her!! 🤣

LOL, I noticed that.

I also saw KK on TV the other day, and he looked positively chipper too.

Ain't context a wonderful thing…

DiscoBob · 02/07/2025 21:27

Chungai · 02/07/2025 21:23

Unless you know her personally anything you or anyone else in here says about her reasons for crying is pure speculation.

Well, yes. You're not wrong there. I said It seems a bit of a coincidence. I didn't say I thought I knew the inner workings of her brain. But we're here to speculate about it, that's the topic, right?

Imdoodleladie · 02/07/2025 21:25

Other than Liz Truss that is! When she first came out from self exile she did look embarassed and unhappy. Now because she has been proven right about a lot of things, she is as happy as I've ever seen her!! 🤣

WulyJmpr · 02/07/2025 21:25

I disagreed fundamentally with her (imo) anti-business October budget and it's been downhill ever since. However once they committed to policy statements they needed to stick with them.

She had an almost-impossible job made actually impossible by all these u-turns by the Cabinet.

TheNuthatch · 02/07/2025 21:25

PandoraSocks · 02/07/2025 20:57

I am pretty pissed off with the government (but not Labour as a whole).

As the wife and carer of a disabled person we are both still glad the Tories aren't in charge.

The Tories wanted to issue vouchers for disabled people. Tory backbenchers would definitely not have fought tooth and nail to water down proposals. They'd have cheered everything through.

Edited

I'm very happy for you that you've managed to convince yourself of that. Enjoy your celebrations.
Plenty of other disabled people (and families of) feel very differently about Labour after the past few weeks.

CarterBeatsTheDevil · 02/07/2025 21:25

PlinthofSynth · 02/07/2025 21:22

Aw, bless

So, your surgeon is having a bad day and has the cries, poor you having to tolerate the result

Your train driver has a sad and is crying tears, poor you and all the passengers, it's not their fault they can't see

your gas boiler check? Yep, the engineer had something in their eye

MOT? Yeah, gaz will do it, yeah, he's got tears rolling down his face, but your car's in safe hands, you'll be fine to get in it and drive your kids

Yeah, everything's fine

None of these are like what she was doing which was sitting on a bench listening to other people talking.

BeeryZ · 02/07/2025 21:25

The PM showed a spectacular lack of
empathy but I genuinely get the vibe that he hates women. He wasn’t even sure what a woman was until recently.

PandoraSocks · 02/07/2025 21:25

MyNameIsX · 02/07/2025 21:17

That’s a pretty brave prediction, on your part.

Cheap words. I very much doubt you would be prepared to place your hard-earned behind it.

I will happily take the other side of that wager. We can do a bilateral trade. Happy to work out the specifics via DM.

Let me know (seriously).

I will donate £10 to the charity of your choice if Labour is out of office before 2029.

MyNameIsX · 02/07/2025 21:23

EasternStandard · 02/07/2025 21:22

I thought that about Starmer, so sneering and awful.

I agree.

Awful that he failed to back her. I could not really gauge Rayner’s reaction though - was she studiously ignoring Reeves, or?

Chungai · 02/07/2025 21:23

DiscoBob · 02/07/2025 21:21

It does seem a bit of a coincidence that you get to the worst most challenging point in your career and then suddenly instantaneously start crying about the fact your dog died or your nan had a fall.

I'm not saying personal things aren't upsetting, but politicians hold it together during personal issues fairly well when it looks like they're succeeding.

I've only ever heard it said when someone in politics knows their job is on the chopping board.

Edited

Unless you know her personally anything you or anyone else in here says about her reasons for crying is pure speculation.

BeeryZ · 02/07/2025 21:23

The chancellor crying in parliament brings our country into disrepute and worse, knocks confidence in our economy. I have every sympathy for her, I couldn’t do her job. The problem is, she can’t either.

PlinthofSynth · 02/07/2025 21:22

Aw, bless

So, your surgeon is having a bad day and has the cries, poor you having to tolerate the result

Your train driver has a sad and is crying tears, poor you and all the passengers, it's not their fault they can't see

your gas boiler check? Yep, the engineer had something in their eye

MOT? Yeah, gaz will do it, yeah, he's got tears rolling down his face, but your car's in safe hands, you'll be fine to get in it and drive your kids

Yeah, everything's fine

EasternStandard · 02/07/2025 21:22

Mumteedum · 02/07/2025 21:18

Badenoch was vile as usual. Just awful.

The standard we have for people in politics is so flipping low these days. Hope to god we don't sink any lower.

I thought that about Starmer, so sneering and awful.

MyNameIsX · 02/07/2025 21:22

PauliesWalnuts · 02/07/2025 21:17

I’m a civil servant and my colleagues have been working with HMT on the Spending Review for months. It’s been stressful as hell and the times when colleagues from HMT have been in my meetings, they’ve looked ready to drop on their knees. They’ve gone from the budget to the SR to this - she, like her colleagues, is probably absolutely exhausted. Give her a break.

Can we, as welfare claimants, as pensioners, as SME Owners, as private school parents, also be given a break, please?

LlynTegid · 02/07/2025 21:21

Whatever we think of her abilities, I think we should not be piling on and speculating the cause.

DiscoBob · 02/07/2025 21:21

It does seem a bit of a coincidence that you get to the worst most challenging point in your career and then suddenly instantaneously start crying about the fact your dog died or your nan had a fall.

I'm not saying personal things aren't upsetting, but politicians hold it together during personal issues fairly well when it looks like they're succeeding.

I've only ever heard it said when someone in politics knows their job is on the chopping board.

jetlag92 · 02/07/2025 21:21

She's right. We cannot continue to support people who don't need it.

CarterBeatsTheDevil · 02/07/2025 21:20

Muffsies · 02/07/2025 20:08

I don't care why she was crying. She got emotional, like normal human beings do.

She wasn't lying to us (boris), she wasn't sleeping (mogg), she wasn't looking at porn (parish), she didn't have a temper tantrum (multiple).

There are way more concerning things for me to worry about right now. Why is this on AIBU??

Exactly what I was thinking. Why is being visibly upset worse than being visibly angry, disrespectful or dishonest?

EasternStandard · 02/07/2025 21:20

She looked very upset. Probably the pressures of recent events. Labour wouldn’t issue a statement saying that’s why she cried though.

Chungai · 02/07/2025 21:19

Muffsies · 02/07/2025 20:08

I don't care why she was crying. She got emotional, like normal human beings do.

She wasn't lying to us (boris), she wasn't sleeping (mogg), she wasn't looking at porn (parish), she didn't have a temper tantrum (multiple).

There are way more concerning things for me to worry about right now. Why is this on AIBU??

Well said.

Shameful that this forum is full of people being so vicious towards a menopausal-aged woman for shedding a tear.

MyNameIsX · 02/07/2025 21:18

placemats · 02/07/2025 21:17

What utter nonsense and you know it.

Rather arrogant, professing to know the mind of others.

GoodbyeRosie · 02/07/2025 21:18

A third thread full of hate.

Way to go, right wing Mumsnet

Toastandbutterand · 02/07/2025 21:18

She would have been attacked far worse had she not turned up.

Chintzcardboard · 02/07/2025 21:18

Maddy70 · 02/07/2025 19:58

She said she has a personal issue. It's non of our business.
Hasn't everyone has a bad day at work from time to time?

She should not gave taken her seat today if she was upset. Or taken her seat, looked at phone & pantomimed to colleagues “I need to leave”

Sitting there quivering face sobbing is inexcusable.

Completely amateur and does not look good for her, along will all her other garbage decisions.

Does not look like any colleagues have her support.

calls herself an “economist”!

Mumteedum · 02/07/2025 21:18

Badenoch was vile as usual. Just awful.

The standard we have for people in politics is so flipping low these days. Hope to god we don't sink any lower.