to believe Rachel Reeves was crying because

[LargeDeviation]

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.

It's Independence Day this Friday. Long live the Labour party 🥳 🎉. One year on and loads to celebrate.

She did a lot of boasting in the beginning about how good she was going to be, she set herself up to make a fool of herself and this is her doing exactly that.

A load of boasting and crying, and crap in between and it's a barely a year, seriously cringe.

The jokes about a woman chancellor just write themselves now.

How insensitive. Perhaps spare a thought for what the disabled have been through recently before you get the party poppers out?

I've got fairly mixed thoughts on this.

Politicians need to be strong. They have to make the hardest decisions and put the country above their own personal feelings and emotions.

Someone should have offered her support to not be on camera. Worst optics for labour as a party that they let her sit there like that. If she was emotional in an uncontrollable then she should have stayed away.

It's not just Mumsnet that will be talking but the entire political world..

Ultimately she's chancellor and has to do the job or walk.

I don’t think Rachel from accounts is misogynistic but I totally believe she has been made a scapegoat for the problems the government is having. Starmer, I believe, knows f&@k all about economics or finance and was relying on RR. Unfortunately things aren’t going to plan, so he has turned on her. Allegedly there was a argument between them before PMQs.

There have been a couple when I've been near to tears in front of colleagues, but managed to escape to the loo before seen. To be viewed crying by millions must be devastating for her. I have sympathy even though I believe she's not up to the job.

The wooden man - Starmer - should be in the dock. I think he will/should go before she does.

.

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.

This. I can’t recall seeing any previous chancellors crying.

because there is no way to keep current funding at this level.....

The government was elected with a mandate. They are trying to carry it out. Whatever you feel about whether it was right or wrong, they are in a horrible situation - not enough money for everything that needs to be done, people ground down by years of services being eroded so that needs are really high, but no one wants to pay more tax when cost of living is so high. Its an impossible situation.

It was a really hard watch and I don't support Labour. Very horrible position for her to be in with cameras trained on her. It's hard to stop yourself from crying if you really need to so I really felt for her. She's probably extremely tired too.

Anyone ever noticed that when some MPs reach high office. Their health goes to hell, they age very fast.In this case Reeves, she looks bloated, pale, is it diet, lack of sleep . Whereas others in this case Starmer seem immune so far.

I'd much rather be a back bencher support my constituency, cut and run. Work/life balance.

Run Rachel, resign, check into a spa, have a good summer holiday eat healthily and relax.

If she hadn't had turned up the day after they just managed to quell a rebellion, I'm sure there would have been speculation about why as well?
So realistically she was stuck with a hard choice, as to go and try and save face or not and people speculate anyways.
The misogyny she's facing is horrible,we should be able to have sensible discussions about policies without misogyny. When Kwasi Kwarteng crashed the economy he didn't get anywhere near this amount of anger. I think it's likely it was a personal issue, she's had times when there's been speculation before and put up good performances in the commons as she did yesterday at Treasury questions.

I think Starmer has aged too.

FFS.

It’s very much our business - many of us have suffered owing to her incompetence. The personal issue line is horse shit - we all know it.

The sooner she goes, and this abomination of a ‘government’ follow her, the better.

Look at the damage they have caused in 12 months.

And who will come in? Reform? Do you think they will care about the disabled?

Do you think any of them do?

It's nice to see some humanity from our politicians tbh, they're not all sociopaths. They're in an impossible situation, the current challenges facing the country are immense. Changes need to be made but no one seems to be able to make them. I fear for our democratic system. I'd probably cry too if I were her.

The same empathy that she hasn't shown to the poor sick and disabled. I think I'll save my pity for the many parents out there who probably cry themselves to sleep every night panicking about how they're going to feed their kids. Let's face RR is never going to see a poor day, is he.

Her eyes looked like she had been crying for a long term, like you do when you’ve had a bereavement or similar. Not just like she starting crying in parliament. I’ve no idea whether it’s personal or work, but it definitely didn’t start at lunchtime today.

This all day long.

The op's speculation is vile and in very poor taste

Well they are not going anywhere, are they? Not for four years, whether you like it or not.

I agree Reeves should go, though I took no pleasure in seeing her distress today.

Don't be ridiculous. I was a head teacher in the the middle of an assembly and broke down in tears. It was super embarrassing. Kids and parents were talking about it for years afterwards. I had just been told my dad had a very serious illness and I overhead a triggering word that started me off and I had no control over. Every single human being has the right to feel emotion