No 10 later made it clear that Starmer and Reeves had not talked on Wednesday before they sat together at PMQs. A Treasury source also rejected any suggestion of a row between the pair.
A Downing Street spokesman said Reeves would continue in her post to the next general election, adding: “The Chancellor is going nowhere.” It came after Starmer had failed to make the promise at PMQs.
Starmer and Reeves remain under huge political pressure after the flagship welfare bill was watered down.
The concessions made to win over Labour rebels mean the savings intended in the original welfare reforms have been wiped out.
That means the Chancellor now needs to find the money from somewhere else, with ministers not ruling out tax rises at the autumn Budget.
The Telegraph understands that Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, was “instrumental” in pushing Starmer to significantly water down the welfare reforms earlier in the week.
Rayner held hours of crunch talks with Labour MPs who were poised to vote against the legislation before the last-minute climbdown. Two well-placed sources told the Telegraph that she had masterminded the U-turn, as first reported by Bloomberg.
One source had conversations with both the Deputy Prime Minister and Sir Alan Campbell, the Chief Whip, in the hours before the vote. They said: “They were both definitely in listening mode and instrumental in getting a solution that was palatable to me and others.”
Downing Street said in January that Reeves would stay in her position for the duration of Labour’s five years in power, but Starmer failed to repeat the promise as he was grilled by Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, on Wednesday.
The Chancellor could be seen wiping away tears shortly afterwards. A spokesman for Reeves said: “It’s a personal matter – which, as you would expect, we are not going to get into.”
The spokesman went on to say that Reeves would be working outside Downing St on Wednesday afternoon.
In January, Downing St had promised that Reeves would remain as Chancellor “for the whole of this Parliament”.
Badenoch asked Starmer to repeat that commitment on Wednesday. Gesturing towards Reeves, she said: “She looks absolutely miserable.
“Labour MPs are going on the record saying that the Chancellor is toast, and the reality is that she is a human shield for his incompetence. In January, he said that she would be in post until the next election. Will she really?”
Starmer said: “She certainly won’t [directed at Badenoch]. I have to say I am always cheered up when she asks me questions or responds to a statement, because she always makes a complete mess of it and shows just how unserious and irrelevant they are.”
Badenoch noted that Starmer had not guaranteed Reeves’ future, saying: “How awful for the Chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she will stay in place.”
The Prime Minister then offered warm words about Reeves in the final answer he gave to Badenoch, praising his Chancellor for the Government’s record to date. Once again, however, he did not take the opportunity to guarantee her future.
Asked why Starmer did not offer his support to the Chancellor as he had done in the past, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “He has done so repeatedly. The Chancellor is going nowhere.
“She has the Prime Minister’s full backing. He has said it plenty of times – he doesn’t need to repeat it every time the Leader of the Opposition speculates about Labour politicians.
“It is thanks to the Chancellor’s management of the economy that we have been able to restore stability, which has led to more interest rate cuts, wages rising faster than inflation.”
The spokesman said he did not have anything to say about why Reeves had been crying at PMQs. Asked whether she had spoken to Starmer on Wednesday morning, he replied: “I wouldn’t get into private discussions.”
Asked whether Reeves had offered her resignation, the spokesman said: “Sorry, I don’t know what that is based on.”
Earlier, it emerged that the Chancellor had a “row” with Hoyle when she entered the chamber before PMQs began.
The Telegraph understands he spoke to Reeves before the session about her conduct at Treasury questions in the Commons on Tuesday, where he had asked her three times to be more brief in her answers.
On the third time, the Speaker interrupted her and she replied: “Oh, alright then.”
Reeves is understood to have told her that it did not reflect well on either of them to be seen to disagree on the floor of the chamber, and pointed to a tweet by Quentin Letts, the political sketch writer, who reported the altercation at the time.
After he raised the issue with Reeves on Wednesday, she is understood to have started crying.
A spokesman for Reeves declined to comment.
