Until lunchtime today, it appeared that humiliated Keir Starmer was the biggest political victim of the government\u2019s welfare U-turn. The extraordinary and piteous sight of chancellor Rachel Reeves in tears in the Commons has changed that.<\/p>\n
She rightly deserves sympathy for the huge personal toll the welfare revolt has clearly had on her. From the moment Labour was elected, Reeves has staked everything on balancing the nation\u2019s books and filling the Conservatives\u2019 \u201c\u00a322bn black hole\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, the welfare rebellion by her party has blown a further \u00a35bn hole in her plans, making it impossible for her to keep her pledge of no further tax rises. The fact that more than 100 of her MPs were prepared, in effect, to treat her and her strategy with contempt, forcing her to rip it up, was a big enough blow to her self-esteem.<\/p>\n
But she could console herself with the knowledge that her No 10 neighbour, the prime minister, had her back. Or so it seemed until Kemi Badenoch\u2019s killer question in the Commons asking him if he could guarantee Reeves\u2019s place as chancellor. When he failed to do so \u2013 although he has since backed her fully \u2013 the sight of Reeves\u2019s crumpled features, apparently in tears, directly behind him, said it all. She knows the game is up.<\/p>\n
Her every action, her political and personal style, since proudly becoming Britain\u2019s first female chancellor, has been to create an image of the \u201cIron Chancellor\u201d. Someone with the personal resolve of Tory \u201cIron Lady\u201d Margaret Thatcher, tempered by the humane prudence of Labour\u2019s first Iron Chancellor, Gordon Brown.<\/p>\n
Reeves (right) crying as Starmer speaks during Prime Minister\u2019s Questions (House of Commons\/UK Parliament)Behind her strong public face, cracks in her image have started to appear. There has been growing criticism over her first Budget, with national insurance rises for employers, and she has had to abandon her decision to scrap winter fuel payments for the elderly.<\/p>\n
Controversies about exaggerating her CV and accepting \u201cfreebies\u201d have not enhanced her attempt to show she leads by example. Now Reeves\u2019s reputation as the Iron Chancellor has melted forever before our eyes.<\/p>\n
Just a week ago, her position seemed impregnable. After her Commons breakdown, it is hard to see how she can survive in her job. At the least, she needs time to recover from the shock to her system. In any other professional field, she would be given compassionate leave. But politics is not a compassionate pastime; it is brutal. And running the country\u2019s economy is too important to have an absent chancellor.<\/p>\n
Not that replacing her would solve the crisis that now faces Starmer\u2019s government. Reeves\u2019s emotional reaction spoke of a deeper truth: the welfare revolt has not just scuppered her credibility \u2013 but Starmer\u2019s, too. In recent weeks, Labour MPs have made it clear they can \u2013 and will \u2013 stop him doing anything they don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n
In 1993, as John Major\u2019s Conservative government limped towards defeat, ravaged by internal revolts and indecision, his former chancellor, Norman Lamont, derided feeble Prime Minister Major, saying he was \u201cin office but not in power\u201d. That was after the Tories had run the country for 14 long years, with ever diminishing Commons majorities.<\/p>\n
The extraordinary and alarming reality for Starmer is that just 12 months after winning a landslide election victory, he too is in office but not in power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Until lunchtime today, it appeared that humiliated Keir Starmer was the biggest political victim of the government\u2019s welfare U-turn. The extraordinary and piteous sight of chancellor Rachel Reeves in tears in the Commons has changed that. She rightly deserves sympathy for the huge personal toll the welfare revolt has clearly had on her. From the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n