Rachel Reeves left squirming in 'car crash' GMB interview as she buckles under pressure
Rachel Reeves faced a grilling as she appeared on Good Morning Britain just one day after announcing her spring statement. The chancellor announced welfare cuts worth £4.8 billion as it emerged the tax burden will hit a new record high. But now, she's facing a Labour civil war over benefits cuts as charities warned hundreds of thousands of people will be plunged into poverty. More than three million families could lose out on up to £1,720 a year as part of her plans to slash spending by £4.8 billion.
The chancellor made an appearance on Thursday's (March 27) instalment of the ITV programme, where she was questioned by presenters Richard Madeley and Kate Garraway. During the interview, the chancellor clashed with the presenters on a number of occasions, with viewers flocking to social media to comment on the interaction. "Blah blah blah…what a car crash of an interview," one declared as another echoed: "This is superb car crash TV with Reeves #GMB it’s what you all voted for."
A third agreed: "What a car crash of an interview that was by Rachel Reeves on #GMB don’t believe a word she says and she was tripping over her own words."
The chancellor faced questions over a number of issues, including whether she plans to raise taxes and her decision to accept more freebies. Madeley said it has been predicted that the chancellor will raise taxes in the next few months, claiming: "You have not ruled it out. Are we going to see tax rises?"
The politician responded: "It would be wrong to try and write four more years of budgets. Lots of people were predicting that I was going to increase taxes yesterday. I didn't because I made a commitment to just one budget a year and I recognise that the tax increases that we introduced last year have got to come in."
Apologising for interrupting, the presenter explained they were short on time and didn't want to "spin off into generalisations again". He added: "But I do notice that you don't rule it out," before attempting to steer the conversation towards Donald Trump.
Hitting back, Ms Reeves said: "I think it would be irresponsible to write budgets in the future," as Madeley declared: "Yeah, you've said that."
The pair began speaking over each other as Madeley remarked: "I'm simply aligning the fact that you're not ruling it out."
Later in the interview, the chancellor was left stuttering as she was probed on accepting £600 worth of tickets in a VIP box at a Sabrina Carpenter concert and theatre tickets worth £76. "Not much to do with government, is it?" Madeley swiped.
He asked: "Why don't you pay for your own tickets? Don't you see how this looks?"
The Labour politician was left squirming as she responded: "I do recognise how it looks to people. Since I've become chancellor, my life has changed a lot. It's a privilege of my life to do this job but with it does come security concerns that I'm not able, like I was in the past, to just buy tickets to a concert and sit with my family."
Garraway interjected: "I understand that you need security, but why does a security concern mean you can't pay for them?"
The chancellor claimed the owners of the venue offered her tickets that are not available for sale, before saying she has "no intention" of accepting free tickets again.
Ms Reeves's nervous response didn't go unnoticed by viewers as one wrote: "Why is Rachel Reeves stuttering like a sh***in dog when asked about the free Sabrina Carpenter tickets????"
Another agreed: "Reeves squirming,bottom line she can’t admit she’s wrong about anything even a concert ticket. She did it, got caught! Own it, say sorry, move on! But she won’t cos she doesn’t care!"
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