Crying shame: it's difficult to see how Reeves can survive

Until lunchtime yesterday, it appeared that humiliated Keir Starmer was the biggest political victim of the government's welfare U-turn.

- SIMON WALTERS

The extraordinary and piteous sight of chancellor Rachel Reeves in tears in the Commons has changed that.

She rightly deserves sympathy for the huge personal toll the welfare revolt has clearly had on her. From the moment Labour was elected, Reeves has staked everything on balancing the nation’s books and filling the Conservatives’ “£22bn black hole”.

However, the welfare rebellion by her party has blown a further £5bn hole in her plans, making it impossible for her to keep her pledge of no further tax rises. The fact that more than 100 of her MPs were prepared, in effect, to treat her and her strategy with contempt, forcing her to rip it up, was a big enough blow to her self-esteem.