Ever since Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership was thrown into peril by a stalled coup last month, critical Labour MPs have been increasingly angered by the conspicuous absence of his Chancellor.
“Where has Rachel been?” fumed one Cabinet source. “There seems to be an accepted view in the Treasury that if Rachel went out to bat for the PM it would be a sign of weakness – that the Government was about to collapse. But what they seem to fail to notice is that the fire is already at the gates and she is nowhere to be seen.”
Her low profile has not gone unnoticed beyond Westminster. Attendees at the Confederation of British Industry’s annual business dinner in central London on Thursday night were “extremely miffed” that Reeves cancelled at the last minute.
Shorts
“It was a really sweaty room. We all had to be there by 5pm on a Tube strike day to hear a lecture about business productivity, when we’d had to leave work early. So that went down badly,” said one source.
