Politics is theatre. But what happened to Rachel Reeves during PMQs was absolutely horrible, writes Andrew Marr

By Andrew Marr

@AndrewMarr9

Politics is also theatre. The words they use, their expressions, the way they look…It's not all lines of numbers or policy conferences. It’s human drama.

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So yes, it does matter that, just after an absolutely eviscerating defeat over welfare, and after failing to hear robust support from the Prime Minister, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves was seen deeply distressed, in tears, at Prime Minister‘s questions this afternoon.

Her team say it was a personal matter, no business of ours, and it’s also true she’d just had a testy exchange with the speaker.

But her tears led to an assumption that she was about to resign or be fired and that had real world consequences – Britain’s borrowing costs jumped, with the yield on 10 year gilts rising almost immediately, and the pound fell against the dollar.

Rachel Reeves has been very unpopular among Labour MPs but the markets, relatively speaking, seem to want her to stay.

They fear that if she was removed from the Treasury after a rebellion by MPs, her successor would be even likelier to raise taxes, likelier to borrow more…and they don’t like that idea.

I’ve always liked Rachel Reeves and admired her tenacity in what was so recently a man’s world, but she hasn’t got natural, persuasive political instincts.

What happened to her today in the Commons chamber was absolutely horrible.

I don’t know why she lost it.

I don’t know whether she is safe in her job though Number Ten say she is.

But I do know that this week’s ripping up of the welfare cuts has done severe damage to the authority of both chancellor and prime minister, and I think the nature of this government is changing as a result.

It’s going to be listening more to Labour MPs, tilting a bit more to the left.

For the time being, the markets have called it right.

And that really, was the meaning of today’s genuine drama in the House of Commons.

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