'It’s not been the smoothest week' - Wes Streeting on Rachel Reeves tears and Labour rebellion
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In a rollercoaster of a week for the Labour government, health secretary Wes Streeting insists that welfare reform reached a “sensible compromise” and Rachel Reeves is “here to stay”.
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In brief:
- Labour faced a chaotic week with MPs rebelling against Keir Starmer's welfare reform bill, though it ultimately passed after concessions were made.
- Rachel Reeves was seen crying during Prime Minister's Questions due to a "personal matter," sparking rumors about her job security that caused temporary market panic until Starmer confirmed her position was safe.
- Health Secretary Wes Streeting tells The News Agents Reeves is essential to Labour's credibility and the economic stability of the UK, due to her role in building market confidence and securing Labour's election victory.
“It's not been the easiest, smoothest week. I'm not going to pretend otherwise” Health Secretary Wes Streeting admits.
He’s talking to Jon Sopel on The News Agents after a chaotic week for Labour, which started with backbench MPs rebelling against Keir Starmer’s welfare reform bill and was followed with Rachel Reeves crying as she sat behind the Prime Minister at PMQs.
In the end, the welfare bill passed, with enough Labour MPs coming on side to vote in favour, after a series of concessions that left the bill looking rather different from its first draft, but in a state Streeting calls a “sensible compromise”.
Those who rebelled did so in “good faith,” Streeting tells The News Agents, insisting that they did so not to rail against economic policy, but because of an “anxiety” that the bill was rushed.
“The thing that I think people worried about more than anything else was a scenario in which you're sat there at a constituency advice surgery on a Friday afternoon, someone walks through the door and shares their story about how they, a disabled person with genuine need, lost out as a result of the government's welfare reforms,” he says.
“The worst case scenario is where you're sitting there as a Labour MP - or even a Labour Government Minister like me - going, hang on a minute. This wasn't supposed to happen to you. That wasn't the intention of our policy.”
It looked, at one point, that Rachel Reeves might be shown to the door amidst all the chaos.
Those rumours only strengthened when Keir Starmer did not confirm her position in government was secure when questioned by leader of the opposition Kemi Badenoch.
They further intensified when Reeves was seen crying live on TV whilst sitting behind him in the commons.
The reason for her tears, she and colleagues have said, was due to a “personal matter”.
Amidst the tears - and the uncertainty of Reeves’ future - the UK markets started to panic prompting a drop in the stock markets.
They recovered quickly once Starmer, although hours overdue, eventually did come out to confirm her job was secure.
“I think what you did see was a whole bunch of people saying that Rachel Reeves is the serious Chancellor we need,” Streeting says.
“She's the person we've got confidence in, because they know her. They trust her, they trust her judgment, they trust her strength. They trust her ability to say no as well as yes, and that's why she's here to stay.”
The series of events led Emily, Jon and Lewis to ask: Is Reeves, if she and her fiscal rules are seemingly so inextricably linked to market stability, unsackable?
“The Prime Minister can get rid of any of us anytime he likes,” Streeting tells Jon when questioned about whether her seat is really safe.
“But, why would he want to?”
He insists Reeves is “here to stay,” saying the credibility she built in opposition helped secure Labour’s 2024 election victory.
“Rachel's leadership is in no small part why we are in government today,” he says.
“She will lead our economy from strength to strength for many years to come. About that there is no doubt.”
Listen to the full interview on The News Agents.
