British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday addressed an extraordinary House of Commons session with his Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, seen fighting tears behind him as he defended his government’s efforts to manage the country’s mounting social welfare benefits bill.
Starmer, who is marking one year as UK PM this week since his Labour government was elected in the July 4 general election last year, had narrowly averted a rebellion within his own ranks after offering a last-minute concession to win a parliamentary vote on welfare reforms on Tuesday night.
It led Opposition Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch to use the Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) session in the Commons on Wednesday to pile on the pressure as she dubbed Reeves as a “human shield” forced to bear the brunt of the financial pressure of the government’s concession to Labour rebels.