According to a Labour insider Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves relationship is “breaking down” as the economic crisis continues to deepen following her controversial Budget.
Tom Harris a former Labour MP hinted that Starmer “fumbled the ball” on Monday as the Prime Minster announced he has “full confidence” in the Chancellor.
On Monday Starmer refused to guarantee Reeves long-term future as the Chancellor as the gilts soar which has not been seen since 2008.
This comes as on Monday the pound plummeted to a 14-month low and fell another 0.6% to 1.21 US dollars, this is the lowest level since 2023.
Starmer was asked if Rachel Reeves will still be the Chancellor at the next general election, he said that he has “full confidence” in her and she is doing a “fantastic job,” but dodged the question if she will remain in No 11 Downing Street.
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Writing in the Telegraph Harris wrote that refusing to guarantee the Chancellor’s long-term future, this caused “unnecessary damage he has done to Reeves’s authority” even though he was “bowled an easy under-arm” by reporters.
Harris said that the Prime Minister should have told reporters “an unequivocal ‘yes’.”
He said, “We all thought and hoped that Starmer’s relationship with Reeves would be stable, positive and long-term.
“It might still be, but Starmer’s fumbling of the ball yesterday makes such a prospect unnecessarily unlikely.”
The Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride warned on Tuesday the Prime Minister is “damned if he does” sack the Chancellor and “he will be damned if he does not.”
Quoting Shakespear’s Hamlet Stride asked, “to go, or not to go, that is now a question,” then accused Labour of giving promises to voters by “pouring the poison into their ear.”
The Chancellor said that the “economic headwinds” Britain is facing shows that the government has to go “further and faster in our plan to kickstart economic growth” as under the Conservatives it “plunged.”
On Monday, the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Reeves is clinging on to her job “by her fingernails” as the economy is “flatlining” and the Prime Minister has “refused to back his Chancellor staying in her job.”
Badenoch said that the Chancellor has “crashed” business confidence despite Labour promising “stability.”
The Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith has warned on Monday that Reeves is “so out of her depth” that she needs “a decompression chamber.”
Badenoch said, “The Prime Minister just refused to back his Chancellor staying in her job. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have driven Britain’s economy into the ground.
“The markets are in turmoil and business confidence has crashed, yet the Chancellor is nowhere to be seen. Labour promised stability and instead the City Minister is mired in corruption investigations and the Chancellor is hanging on by her fingernails.”
