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.

What do you make of Rayner’s demeanour whilst her colleague was blubbing next to her?

That's a good point. Also Starmer barely looked at Reeves.

A huge mess of their own making.

Apologies I really don’t know the ins and outs but look at what they’ve got to sort out. Such a huge mess. It’s easy to criticize but my goodness what a job they’ve got on their hands.

Huh? I’m no fan of Kemi, but do you feel the same when Labour nasties call Kemi names - racist ones at that. Did you feel this way when Labour were calling Kwasi Kwarteng names for not being black enough, apparently.

Not really. I’m talking about what they’ve taken on after the Tories

No doubt the Tories were disastrous beyond belief, but these clowns have outdone even the Tories.

And the mess they’ve created since

I think she was crying because she is genuinely trying to do her very best in this shit show of a world we inhabit right now and it’s just not easy and the frustration is evident.
Have always been a Starmer fan but he let himself down badly today and I hope he knows it.
(please be reading this RR, I think you are a good, honest person and that matters so much)

Which would be the correct pov to take had she not appeared in the HoC on TV. That she did appear, rather than being professional and making her excuses when she was clearly so distressed (the ugly-crying-face she had shows hours of previous crying) makes it a talking point. You can't un-see it. You can't pretend it didn't happen.
She has not only cried at work, she has cried in front of the whole world. You can't cry in the most public of places, not absent yourself but then tell the world it's none of their business.

Doing it in public = everyone's business.

She has also brought into question in the whole of the HoC as 2TK just ignored her crying and Kemi noted her distress but not in a sympathetic way.
I just can't see Boris not saying something, or Rishi getting flustered, if a woman next to him had clearly been sobbing for hours and was still crying. Keir couldn't have given less of a toss. What type of people do we have representing us - that they haven't got a shred of common decency to intervene when someone is visibly upset.

Toxic workplace, toxic colleagues and a toxic job.

That said RR will get little sympathy from a lot of people. How many farmers, pensioners and disabled people have been in tears since she became Chancellor - sneering at them as she set out her future plans.

He’s no fan of the policy, Reeves or Starmer (neither am I) - did you read some of what he said yesterday:

After the crunch vote, SNP Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, said: “From start to finish, Labour’s Disability Cuts Bill has been a shambles – and it defines their chaotic first year in office. The cause of that chaos, and the blame for it, falls directly at the doors of Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves….”

Just a bit of human compassion I think.

How do you know she is a good, honest person? Because she shed a few tears.

Man, it feels like an X factor parody around here. Have a cry and pull out a sad backstory and you’ll be through to the next round.

If you genuinely care for RR, it might be better if she doesn’t read these threads.

I am indulging your fanciful notion that she somehow has the time/inclination to follow MN (one hopes she spends more time on the economy, but perhaps you have explained her lack of success since coming to office….)

What has Liz Truss been proven right about?

I can’t stand her policies and they would have made my life very, very difficult. But she looked like a broken person and I felt a stab of pain for her. I hope she is ok.

You have no idea what is happening in her life. There could be a family crisis of some sort. There could be anything. It does not have to be a professional problem. The mistake she made was staying on the front bench, she should have left. However that vile Kemi woman would have gone for her.

That supply side reforms is what this country needs. It’s exactly what Two Tier has woken up to and is trying to do….and miserably failing.

So much vitriol.

I think she was more worried that her vile colleagues would have ‘gone for her’….

Edit

Normally I'd say it's none of our business. But when the result of her appearing is for the markets to get rocked and the pound/bonds to be negatively impacted then it very much is our business. If she couldn't keep her personal issues out of the Commons then she shouldn't have been on the floor of the house until she could control her emotions.

Well said 👏

We don’t really know why she was crying tbh. Could be a mixture of personal reasons and what went on in the HoC, in particular LH having a go at her.

Maybe politicians should stop being shits to each other and conducting themselves with more decorum- less of this “barrack room” style, less aggression and more constructive debate.

And I’m not just blaming the men - none of the questions asked by Badenoch at PMQs took us anywhere - and she was the one who called attention to RR “looking miserable”.

Charles Kennedy years ago was trying to introduce a more professional style of debate and of conducting politics in general, but unfortunately his own demons overtook him.

What mess exactly?

To be fair I did wonder why she came into the chamber if she was so overcome.