UPDATE 2-UK PM gives full backing to Reeves after she appeared upset in parliament

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer gave Rachel Reeves his full backing on Wednesday after the finance minister appeared visibly upset in parliament following a series of U-turns on welfare that blew a hole in her budget plans.

Reeves had sat beside Starmer during the weekly prime minister's questions, and cameras caught her looking exhausted and upset. Asked about Reeves, a Treasury spokesperson said: "It's a personal matter, which - as you would expect - we are not going to get into."

The spokesperson said Reeves will be working out of Downing Street on Wednesday afternoon. Starmer's press secretary told reporters: "The chancellor is going nowhere, she has the prime minister's full backing."

The pressure on Reeves comes after the government managed to pass its welfare reform bill only after it removed measures that would have led to savings in the long run. Reeves has been blamed by some Labour members of parliament for pushing for billions of pounds of savings that were described as cruel and targeting the most vulnerable.

Opposition politicians said the government's decision to sharply scale back the welfare reforms means it will have to raise taxes or cut government spending elsewhere to balance the public finances in the annual budget later this year. The opposition party leader Kemi Badenoch singled out Reeves during the weekly session, saying: "She's pointing at me, she looks absolutely miserable."

Reeves animatedly gestured back. Badenoch said: "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 then responded that Badenoch would not be in her job by then, but declined to explicitly back Reeves. His press secretary later said the prime minister had expressed his confidence in Reeves many times and did not need to repeat it every time a political opponent speculated on her position.

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