6 d. ago Who’s really to blame for Labour’s troubles – Rachel Reeves or the invisible PM? | Gaby Hinsliff

The Treasury focuses on numbers when what’s needed is vision. The party and the country are crying out for leadership, but it’s nowhere to be seenShe is not the first chancellor to cry in public, and may not be the last. But Rachel Reeves is the first whose tears have moved markets. No sooner had the realisation dawned that she was silently weeping – over a personal sorrow she won’t be pushed into revealing, she insisted later, not a political one – as she sat beside Keir Starmer at Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions, than the pound was dropping and the cost of borrowing rising. The bond traders who forced out Liz Truss’s hapless chancellor still clearly rate her judgment and want her to stay, even if (perhaps especially if) some Labour MPs don’t. Yet it is an extraordinary thing to live with the knowledge that a moment’s uncontrolled emotion can drive up the cost of a nation’s mortgages, just as a misjudged stroke of the budget pen can destroy lives.The most striking thing abou...

Events

6 d. ago Rachel Reeves says her tears were NOT caused by spat with Speaker or PM as she hints at 'personal issue'... and is still 'totally' up for being Chancellor

Chancellor Rachel Reeves was flanked at the event in London by Keir Starmer - who gave her an awkward hug - and Health Secretary Wes Streeting.

Politics

6 d. ago No one's buying it, Rachel! As Starmer awkwardly hugs his Chancellor for the cameras, at least one onlooker can't hide her scepticism

Chancellor Rachel Reeves was flanked at the event in London by Keir Starmer - who gave her an awkward hug - and Health Secretary Wes Streeting.

Events

6 d. ago Operation Save Rachel: Keir says he didn't NOTICE his Chancellor crying at PMQs as he guarantees her job amid market panic

Keir Starmer gave a guarantee that Rachel Reeves will remain in her job 'into the next election and for many years after' amid continuing mystery over her public show of emotion.

Politics

7 d. ago Operation Save Rachel: Keir scrambles to shore up weeping Reeves and guarantees her job after her tears triggered market drop

Sir Keir said her tears had 'nothing to do with politics' or Labour's embarrassing U-turns on benefits - insisting she cried over something 'personal' without expanding further.

Politics

7 d. ago Keir Starmer insists Rachel Reeves 'will remain chancellor into the next election and for many years after'...as markets tumble and No10 frantically denies bust

Sir Keir said her tears had 'nothing to do with politics' or Labour's embarrassing U-turns on benefits - insisting she cried over something 'personal' without expanding further.

Politics

7 d. ago Rachel Reeves' mystery tears send markets tumbling as No10 frantically denies Starmer bust

Chancellor Rachel Reeves was sitting next to Keir Starmer as he insisted the smoking ruin of his benefits reforms would still make things better.

Politics

7 d. ago Rachel Reeves 'had row with Starmer' minutes before bursting into tears in astonishing moment at PMQs... and now markets drop amid chaos fears

Chancellor Rachel Reeves was sitting next to Keir Starmer as he insisted the smoking ruin of his benefits reforms would still make things better.

Events

7 d. ago Rachel Reeves in TEARS as Starmer refuses to guarantee she will stay in her job in astonishing  PMQs after PM's benefits humiliation

Chancellor Rachel Reeves was sitting next to Keir Starmer as he insisted the smoking ruin of his benefits reforms would still make things better.

Politics

7 d. ago Rachel Reeves WEEPS as Starmer refuses to guarantee she will stay in her job during brutal PMQs

Chancellor Rachel Reeves was sitting next to Keir Starmer as he insisted the smoking ruing of his benefits reforms would still make things better.

Politics

1 week ago If Britain is broken, what is to blame – big money and big tech, or graffiti on your train? | Tom Whyman

A new cadre of agit-prop campaigners has been cleaning the London underground, but there is more to the political stunt than meets the eyeBritain, let’s face it, is crap. Crap, I mean, in quite a specific sense: we might not be teetering on the brink of civilisational destruction, as the post-Brexit right can often seem to think. But there nonetheless remains a vast, ambient sense of rubbishness. Everything is expensive but nothing works. Our streets are full of potholes; our houses are full of mould. All the shops are shut, except for a Tesco Express, where there are security tags on the eggs. It takes about a million years to build a railway line.Up to now, the response to Britain’s enshittification has, by and large, seemed remarkably fatalistic: Keir Starmer spent the first year in government repeatedly insisting that there just wasn’t any money, and so really nothing could be done. Thank God then, one might think, for Looking for Growth, a new campaign group led by young (well,...

Politics

2 w. ago No10 hints at benefit cut climbdown as more Labour MPs join rebellion

Ministers 'want' to hold a vote on the controversial benefit shake-up on Tuesday, a No10 source said - just a day after Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner insisted it would definitely go ahead

Politics

2 w. ago DAN HODGES: Keir Starmer's time is up and his party 'have had enough'. That's the withering verdict from his own MPs... and this is what they tell me is coming next

'It's not a confidence vote,' Keir Starmer insisted plaintively yesterday, after it was put to him that his personal authority was on the line over the mounting rebellion against his disability benefit cuts.

Politics

2 w. ago Keir Starmer says welfare vote WILL go ahead despite rebellion

Keir Starmer has insisted he will not cancel a vote on his disability welfare changes in spite of 123 Labour MPs backing an amendment demanding a rethink

Politics

2 w. ago Welfare rebellion not a confidence vote, PM says as he remains defiant over cuts

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he will ‘press on’ despite the backbench rebellion.

Politics

2 w. ago Keir Starmer won't say where £30BILLION A YEAR of extra defence cash will come from as he joins Nato summit vowing to hit target for spending 3.5% of GDP

Keir Starmer insisted the government will say 'precisely' how it will fund the goal of spending 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence at a later stage.

Economics

3 w. ago Keir Starmer insists assisted dying Bill has not been rushed as dozens of MPs say it should receive more scrutiny

The Prime Minister insisted that plenty of time had been devoted to the controversial plan despite dozens of his MPs pleading for it to receive more scrutiny.

Events

3 w. ago Grooming gang ringleader who Keir Starmer helped jail in 2012 has STILL not been deported back to Pakistan after winning human rights battle

As Director of Public Prosecutions between 2008 and 2013 - before entering politics - Sir Keir Starmer insists he tackled Asian child abuse rings 'head on'.

Events

3 w. ago Donald Trump won't sink crucial nuclear submarine deal, Keir Starmer says

Keir Starmer insisted the landmark AUKUS deal signed by Australia, the UK and the US was 'really important' - and dismissed fears Donald Trump could abandon the crucial pact

Politics