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Political reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Political reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Sir Keir Starmer has backed Rachel Reeves to remain chancellor “into the next election and for many years after” after she was seen crying during Prime Minister’s Questions.<\/p>\n The prime minister had refused to say whether Reeves would remain in her job until the next election in front of MPs in the Commons, during a session in which the chancellor wiped away tears as she sat behind him.<\/p>\n But later Sir Keir told BBC Radio 4’s Political Thinking<\/a> he worked “in lockstep” with Reeves and she was “doing an excellent job as chancellor”.<\/p>\n After PMQs, Reeves’ spokesperson said she had been dealing with a “personal matter” and Sir Keir insisted her tears had “nothing to do with politics”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Asked if Reeves would remain in government Sir Keir said: “She’s done an excellent job as chancellor and we have delivered inward investment to this country in record numbers.<\/p>\n “She and I work together, we think together. <\/p>\n “In the past there have been examples – I won’t give any specifics – of chancellors and prime ministers who weren’t in lockstep. We’re in lockstep.”<\/p>\n He said Reeves’ tears had “nothing to do with politics” or this week’s welfare U-turns<\/a> – which potentially blows a hole in her Budget plans.<\/p>\n “That’s absolutely wrong,” said Sir Keir. “Nothing to do with what’s happened this week. It was a personal matter for her, I’m not going to intrude on her privacy by talking to you.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At a highly charged PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch laid into the government over its welfare U-turns.<\/p>\n She said the chancellor would now be forced to put up taxes “to pay for his incompetence” and asked if she would still be chancellor at the next election.<\/p>\n She said the chancellor “looks absolutely miserable”.<\/p>\n And she told the PM: “Labour MPs are going on the record saying that the chancellor is toast, and the reality is that she is a human shield for his incompetence.”<\/p>\n Sir Keir said: “No prime minister or chancellor ever stands at the dispatch box and writes budgets in the future.”<\/p>\n He ignored Badenoch’s questions and instead insisted the welfare reform bill would get more people back into work and blamed Tory “stagnation” for creating the problems it was trying to fix.<\/p>\n Reeves was seen to wipe away tears during the PMQs exchanges. <\/p>\n