It's a crying shame but Reeves is not alone

In his last words in the House of Commons as prime minister, Tony Blair said that politics was a trade of many harsh contentions.

- Philip Collins

It is not surprising that there should be such a history of politicians in tears.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, was visibly distressed on Wednesday from the beginning of Prime Minister's Questions over what she has subsequently described as "a personal matter". Inevitably, the balloon has gone up, with all and sundry demanding to know what was wrong. We don't know precisely what was wrong; maybe it all got a bit much. If so, Reeves would hardly be the first politician to cry in office.

As the historian Andrew Roberts has pointed out, Britain's greatest speaker was also its greatest weeper. Winston Churchill's private secretary, Sir Anthony Montague Browne, once drew up a list of all the things that had reduced his boss to tears. They included stories of great heroism and the idea of a dog struggling home through the snow to his master.