British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has given his full backing to Treasury chief Rachel Reeves on Wednesday, a spokesperson said, after she appeared visibly upset in parliament earlier following a series of U-turns on welfare that blew a hole in her budget plans.
Reeves is "going nowhere" and will remain U.K. chancellor, Starmer's office said, despite Starmer declining to give her a public show of support.
Reeves had sat beside Starmer during the weekly prime minister's questions, and cameras caught her looking tearful and upset. The chancellor was visibly tearful in the House of Commons, as her position came under intense scrutiny due to the welfare U-turn, which put an almost 5 billion pounds ($6.8 billion) black hole in her plans.
But allies said she was dealing with a "personal matter," and the prime minister's office said she had Starmer's "full backing."
Asked about Reeves, a Treasury spokesperson said: "It's a personal matter, which – as you would expect – we are not going to get into."
The spokesperson said Reeves will be working out of Downing Street on Wednesday afternoon.
Starmer's press secretary told reporters: "The chancellor is going nowhere, she has the prime minister's full backing."
The pressure on Reeves comes after the government managed to pass its welfare reform bill only after it removed measures that would have led to savings in the long run.
Reeves has been blamed by some Labour members of parliament for pushing for billions of pounds of savings that were described as cruel and targeting the most vulnerable.
Opposition politicians said the government's decision to sharply scale back the welfare reforms means it will have to raise taxes or cut government spending elsewhere to balance the public finances in the annual budget later this year.
The opposition party leader Kemi Badenoch singled out Reeves during the weekly session, saying: "She's pointing at me, she looks absolutely miserable."
Reeves animatedly gestured back.
Badenoch said: "She is a human shield for his incompetence. In January, he said that she would be in post until the next election. Will she really?"
Starmer dodged the question about whether Reeves would be in place for the remainder of the Parliament, saying Badenoch "certainly won't."
His press secretary later said the prime minister had expressed his confidence in Reeves many times and did not need to repeat it every time a political opponent speculated on her position.
