The Chancellor was visibly distressed, wiping tears from her cheeks as Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch tore into the government ’s climbdown over welfare the previous evening. According to Reeves’ spokesperson, the reason she was upset was a ‘personal matter, which – as you would expect – we are not going to get into’.

Rachel Reeves has broken her silence after crying in the Commons yesterday alongside the Prime Minister. The Chancellor was visibly upset as she sat beside Sir Keir on Wednesday. Ms Reeves said “clearly I was upset” in the Commons but it was her job to be at Prime Minister’s Questions “supporting the Government and that’s what I tried to do."