Rachel Reeves has opened up about the moment she cried during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) last year. She said it was her “toughest moment” as Chancellor with speculation rife about her future in the role.
Ms Reeves was visibly crying in the House of Commons chamber on Wednesday, July 2 last year. She previously said a “personal issue” was behind her emotion and didn’t go into any further details. However, she has now gone into more detail in an interview with the BBC‘s Laura Kuenssberg. She revealed that seeing pictures of herself crying on TV and in newspapers was one of the hardest moments of her career.
After being asked about her toughest time as Chancellor, she replied: “I would say, don’t cry on national television. That was probably my toughest moment – or perhaps even tougher, seeing the photos of me crying on national television on the front pages of every newspaper the following day.”
She added: “It was a tough day, we all have tough days. I talk to my friends, and people wrote to me saying ‘that happened to me once,’ and the only difference is that I was on the telly. People have difficult days at work, and that was one for me.”
Following the incident, which took place during a tense session of PMQs, a spokesperson for the Chancellor said her emotional distress was caused by an unrelated “personal issue”. It came during a stressful week for the Chancellor, with the Labour Party scrapping parts of its welfare reforms.
During the PMQs session, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch pointed out that Ms Reeves looked “absolutely miserable”. She also challenged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on whether the Chancellor should remain in her position.
Also in the recent BBC interview, Ms Reeves said: “I will go down in history as the first female Chancellor.
“But what I really hope is that – something I said, actually, when I gave my first speech as Chancellor, that I would know my time in office was a success if young women and girls felt there should be no ceiling on their ambition.”
