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.

She should be standing up explaining what her party would do differently

Why should Kemi be explaining what she would do differently? It is irrelevant what she would do as she is in opposition. She should be holding the government accountable for what they ARE doing.

No resignation yet.

how on earth can starmer say she’s doing a good job? Unless his objective is to tank the country. Which, looking at the chagos fiasco, the lure of the promised land to illegal migrants, the destruction of industry, the dismantling of land safety, I can only believe it is. In which case give that woman a pay rise!!!

Can you imagine the fallout if she hadn't turned up at all?!

Yeah. And it would have been better than this. She needed to excuse herself when she felt herself losing it.

I have never ever cried at work, I'd sooner throw myself off a tall building. Well once when my 21 year old cat died, I'd had her since she was a kitten, but I didn't go in that day, I took emergency annual leave and told them the reason. For her to do that in front of cameras with the country watching, and in front of parliament there must have been appalling stuff going on for months, I cannot bear to think what has been going on behind the scenes. I did feel for her big time.
I can't ever see Kemi crying, she's more likely to make grown men cry.

I refer you to my final sentence.

Oh yes and here we go on the we don't want this prime minister now, we're going to all fight for the top job and the next one will probably only last for 6 months just like the tories. Shocking.

Come on Rachel… it’s cardboard box time.

Yep. Although it was Starmer’s inability to answer in a way to reassure the markets that set her off.

She’s clearly had a bad time, probably due to party infighting. Nothing to do with KB incidentally.

I’m sure she’s exhausted and human.

We are used to people with a thicker skin and sense of self and entitlement. These types of people find it easier to blame everyone else but themselves.
I feel like the Labour Party is full of people who are more like the rest of us.
I would probably struggle not to cry if I was dealing with some of the challenges they’re facing.

I agree @CircusofPuffins - I don’t know why they do it - but thank god they do.
otherwise we would end up with tyrant types who lack empathy and bulldoze their way forward… As we are seeing in other countries.

Our current government is the epitome of lacking empathy and bulldozing forward!!

Reeves and Truss between them have set back women in top jobs immensely.

Not forgetting Paula Vennells.

Reeves should not have cried publicly, and I feel disappointed as a woman that she did that.
However, it’s just blatant misogyny to blame her alone for budget cock ups. I think it’s quite clear that Starmer is in the process of throwing her under the bus. She was given a brief, and because he ys turning out to be a spineless and craven coward he keeps u turning and SHE gets the blame for all and any outcomes.
It’s appalling how blatant it is when people say “ Liz Truss ( Prime Minister) crashed the economy. Nobody seems to remember that Kwasi Kwartemg was chancellor, and yet it’s all Rachel Reeves fault when things are going pear shaped and Starmer (Prime Minister) is not held to account!
I think that pledging to not raise taxes but going after employer NI was a huge mistake but these are Starmer policies too and she works for him!
So I’m disappointed she crumbled ( and I knew her as an MP a little bit and she was very competent) but I’m more disappointed in Starmer. Reeves will be, like all women in politics when things go bad, a handy scapegoat.
And she is infinitely more qualified than Hunt, who presided over the COL crisis!!

Empathy doesn’t pay the bills. Remember that when you’re tempted to complain about forthcoming tax rises. It’s a bit rich to complain about lack of empathy when you’ve shown none towards Reeves on this thread.

I’m not complaining about lack of empathy. My comment was in response to someone else, for whom empathy seems to be the highest virtue. I prefer my chancellors to have sound judgement, a grasp on what drives an economy and loyalties in the right place. Of course she has a black hole, she has utterly ridiculous spending plans that need slashing as a first port of call. Why are we paying good money to hand over the chagos?!

I’m a centrist who voted Tory until the one-man fiasco that was Boris. I don’t want to pay more tax and think RR is demonstrably wrong about pretty much everything, not bright or experienced enough to be chancellor and lacks even a smudge of gravitas. BUT the sexism in lots of the commentary about her tears is off the scale. I’m old enough to recall Heseltine losing his mind in the HoC (hence the Tarzan nickname), not to mention MP’s head butting, napping, watching porn, playing candy crush…. the response to all of which was an eye-roll and occasionally a piss-takey nickname. Yes the markets were spooked, gilts are now looking worse than when Truss was racing a lettuce, but equally if it was a male MP showing “man emotion” yesterday, we would all have bloody well moved on by now.

The money markets had billions wiped off them because of those tears. We have an incompetent chancellor who embellished her CV to get the job and has been found out wanting. That said Labour really have no one more qualified to replace her so as long as Labour are in power we are stuck with her. If she had a personal issue enough to mak her cry she should have stayed out of public view. I agree the bags under her eyes have appeared since she's been chancellor. Photos of her in opposition don't show them up like they are now.

I’m not complaining about lack of empathy.

You just did. I quoted you.

This is incredibly weird logic, the tax rises are because of her.

No the inevitable tax rises are because there’s no money. If you can’t borrow and you can’t cut services you’re left with just one lever and that’s tax rises. If only Hunt hadn’t made an unfunded £20 million NI cut.

I was thinking that too. It’s not good to see the chancellor crying in the House of Commons but it’s not as bad as having a psychopath with no feelings running things. I’m not sure who could do the job to be honest. People want good public services and benefits but low taxation. Both Conservative and Labour leaders have been brought down by division in their own parties recently and the media are vicious especially towards women.

Reeves isn’t crying because Labour’s policies impact people. She cried because her own party are on the attack and she is stressed out by losing options.

She wants to quit, desperately which is why she cried today. She does not want the job any more, & wants to be fired for crying. .

I took you seriously until this bit @Chintzcardboard. How can you possibly know?

Yes. There is no money. Wealth tax, gambling taxes, capital gains, possible on VAT.

Only the last is likely to affect “working people” significantly and of course Reeves said she wouldn’t do it. But I think she will