Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves hugged each other as they launched their new plan for the NHS and put behind them a troubled week which saw markets panic over the chancellor’s future.
The united front came after the chancellor’s tears in the Commons on Wednesday threatened to plunge the Labour government into turmoil following the chaos of the welfare reform vote.
In a bid to ease shattered nerves, the chancellor made a surprise appearance at the launch of the NHS 10 Year Health Plan in Stratford, east London, after the prime minister had moved overnight to guarantee her future in the Treasury.
Bond markets had reacted badly to Sir Keir’s refusal to guarantee she was safe in her job during PMQs on Wednesday, where Ms Reeves appeared visibly upset while sitting behind the prime minister.
But a grinning Ms Reeves was bullish during the event on Thursday morning, in what was intended to be a confirmation of her close partnership with Sir Keir.
As a result, UK government bonds rallied and the pound steadied after further reassurances from the prime minister about the chancellor’s future.
Ms Reeves noticeably rolled her eyes at questions from reporters about her well-being and future in the job as Sir Keir insisted that she will be chancellor until the next election.
In contrast to his failure to stand up for her in the Commons on Wednesday, the prime minister was effusive about his chancellor at the NHS plan launch.
He said she was doing an “excellent” job, would remain in place beyond the next general election, and that they were both absolutely committed to the chancellor’s “fiscal rules” to maintain discipline over the public finances.
Sir Keir said he did not “appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying behind him at PMQs, as the event is “pretty wired”.
“It goes from question to question and I am literally up, down, question, looking at who is asking me a question, thinking about my response and getting up and answering it,” he said.
He added: “It wasn’t just yesterday. No prime minister ever has had side conversations in PMQs. It does happen in other debates when there is a bit more time, but in PMQs it is bang, bang, bang, bang.
“That is what it was yesterday and therefore I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber.”
Speaking on Wednesday night to the BBC podcast Political Thinking with Nick Robinson, Sir Keir provided reassurance to the markets: “She will be chancellor by the time this is broadcast, she will be chancellor for a very long time to come, because this project that we’ve been working on to change the Labour Party, to win the election, change the country, that is a project which the chancellor and I’ve been working on together.”
Joining the pair at the NHS plan launch was health secretary Wes Streeting, who many are talking up as a potential replacement for Ms Reeves if she does get sacked.
Ms Reeves would not be drawn into answering questions about the “personal matter” which had upset her ahead of Wednesday’s PMQs.
She told broadcasters: “Clearly, I was upset yesterday and everyone could see that. It was a personal issue and I’m not going to go into the details of that.
“My job as chancellor at 12 o’clock on a Wednesday is to be at PMQs next to the prime minister, supporting the government and that’s what I tried to do.
“I guess the thing that maybe is a bit different between my job and many of your viewers’ is that when I’m having a tough day it’s on the telly and most people don’t have to deal with that.”
The chancellor rejected suggestions that her tears were related to a conversation with Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle or another member of government.
“People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday. Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job,” she added.
Meanwhile, after a traumatic week for his government, Sir Keir wanted to refocus on a positive announcement about fixing the NHS.
He hoped to put behind him the problems with the welfare bill, in which his government was forced to abandon massive parts of its reforms, including dropping changes to the personal independence payment (Pip) at the last minute, leaving a £5bn black hole in its financial plans.
The new 10-year plan for the NHS sets out a series of shifts to bring care much closer to people’s homes, reducing the reliance on hospitals and A&E.
Under the changes, there will be fewer staff working in the NHS than previous projections said were needed, with far more providing care closer to home and fewer working in hospitals.
Key reforms include a greatly enhanced NHS app to give patients more control over their care and more data at their fingertips, new neighbourhood health centres open six days a week and at least 12 hours a day, and new laws on food and alcohol to prevent ill health.
Sir Keir said: “It’s all down to the foundation we laid this year, all down to the path of renewal that we chose, the decisions made by the chancellor, by Rachel Reeves, which mean we can invest record amounts in the NHS.”
With junior doctors threatening to strike again over pay, Mr Streeting told NHS staff gathered at the event that Labour rejected the “pessimism” which says the “NHS is a burden, too expensive, inferior to the market”.
