Finances are a taxing issue

THE degree to which the fate of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ future had cut through after her tearful appearance at Prime Minister's Questions recently was summed up for me by the opening question from a neighbour when we met on my dog walk the morning after she was filmed weeping in the Commons.

- PHIL BOWERN

"Has she gone yet...?" he asked - and I didn't really need to ask who he was talking about.

Yet for all the speculation about the future of our first woman Chancellor of the Exchequer, it looks like - for now - she's not going anywhere. That's probably a good thing. Because despite the fact a long list can be drawn up in the debit column of why she doesn’t deserve to keep her job at the top of the Treasury, the most recent catastrophe for the Labour Government, its forced U-turn on welfare reform, is hardly her fault.