Defiant Rachel Reeves says she will be Chancellor for years and pledges to ‘defy her critics’

Defiant Rachel Reeves says she will be Chancellor for yearsSOURCE: BBC

Transcript

00:00I just also wonder, after the budget, you told your MPs that you would show your critics.

00:04You said, I'll be here this year, next year, and the year after, and the year after.

00:08Are you sure?

00:09Yes, I am sure.

00:12And I am determined.

00:14I was an MP in opposition for 14 and a half years.

00:17I have been underestimated all the way through my life as a young girl from an ordinary background.

00:24People made assumptions about me, and I've defied them before,

00:28and I will defy my critics again.

00:31I'm proud of my budget this week, proud that I'm taking money off of energy bills,

00:35proud that I'm reducing NHS waiting lists, proud that I'm cutting child poverty,

00:39and proud that I've put our public finances on a sustainable footing.

00:43And you've grown people stacked up by £26 billion?

00:45I've made that choice to do those other things.

00:48I believe it was the fair and necessary choice in the circumstances we made.

00:53Other people can make other choices,

00:54but they have to explain why they wouldn't take children out of poverty,

00:59why they wouldn't reduce NHS waiting lists,

01:01or why they wouldn't take money off people's bills.

01:03I've made my choices, and I am more than happy to defend them.