Viewers have said Rachel Reeves was “fooling no one” during her first appearance in public since crying in the House of Commons yesterday. The Chancellor appeared alongside Sir Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting during a speech outlining a 10-year plan for the NHS. @TaxpayerBritish said on X: “Embarrassingly over the top. The Reeves with a smile plastered on her face, almost like it was drawn on. They are fooling no one.” @mummas15 wrote: “Wes introducing Reeves was vomit inducing – [whole] thing is fake.” @BuzzTheSchnauz1 posted: “Smiling through gritted teeth comes to mind.
“Are we supposed to forget what happened yesterday and move on? Reeves is a danger to society as has been proven over the past 12 months.” Others, meanwhile, were commenting on her beauty regime. @mouldyscone said: “I’m needing to know reeves skin care routine. As that’s magical.” It comes after the Prime Minister said yesterday that he did not appreciate how upset Ms Reeves was in the chamber, because he was focused on answering Prime Minister’s Questions.
Sir Keir added that all people could be caught “off guard” by their emotions.
A spokesperson for Ms Reeves said she shed tears because of a “personal matter”, and reports suggested that she had had a row with the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, before taking her seat.
The Prime Minister said: “I actually personally didn’t appreciate it was happening in the Chamber, because I came in, I’ve got questions being fired at me in PMQs, so I’m constantly up at the despatch box and down.
“I think we just need to be clear, it’s a personal matter, and I’m not going to breach Rachel’s privacy by going into what’s a personal matter for her.”
He added that “in politics, you’re on show the whole time, there’s no hiding place”.
Ms Reeves was a “great colleague, she’s a friend of mine and I’ll be working with her for a very long time to come”.
“But like all human beings, we’re also personal.
“There are moments that catch us off guard and if you’re in front of a camera for large periods of your life, unfortunately, that could be caught on camera in a way, if it had been anybody else at work, it would have not really been noticed.”
Asked if Ms Reeves would remain in her post, when speaking to the BBC, he said: “She will be Chancellor for a very long time to come, because this project that we’ve been working on to change the Labour Party, to win the election, change the country, that is a project which the Chancellor and I’ve been working on together.”