TODAY’S WEATHER

☔️☀️ You’ll have rain and shine today: for how long, and in what order, depends on your location… Glasgow will see rain all day, well into the evening, I’m afraid. Edinburgh will have a wet afternoon. Aberdeen will only see rain at teatime. London will be dry, and see temperatures fall off recent highs - it’ll only reach a maximum of 25 degrees, today. (Here’s the UK forecast).

THE BIG STORIES
Starmer offers belated support to Reeves | MSPs warn on welfare bill | US scales back arms supply to Ukraine

📣 The Prime Minister has insisted Rachel Reeves is doing an excellent job, and will continue as chancellor “into the next election and for many years after” after she was seen crying during Prime Minister’s Questions.

Speaking to the BBC, Starmer said her upset was “nothing to do with politics” or this week’s welfare u-turns, which have left a huge hole in her budget plans.

His comments came after he had failed to back Reeves during Prime Minister’s Questions.(BBC)

• With £6.25 billion in planned savings now shelved, where does the government’s u-turn leave our public finances? (Guardian)

• Market reaction may determine the Chancellor’s fate (The Times £)

• The cost of government debt spiked after Starmer’s failure to back his Chancellor at Prime Minister’s Questions (City AM)

• More reaction to Reeves’ tears is summed up later in today’s email ⬇️

📣 MSPs have issued a warning over Scotland’s “soaring” welfare bill. The public audit committee warned that social security costs, projected to hit £9 billion in five years, was “a risk" to the Scottish Government’s financial position.” (The Herald has the exclusive)

📣 The US is scaling back its supply of weapons to Ukraine because reserves for its own use are running too low. The stockpile of artillery rounds, air defence missiles and precision weapons had shrunk, prompting a review by the Pentagon. The news comes as Ukraine faces some of the largest barrages of Russian missiles and drones, aimed at civilian targets, since the war began. (Politico)

IDEAS
Chancellor’s tears spark reflection, and bad memories

🗣️ Allegra Stratton knows about the impact of tears in public. Her own were, briefly, famous, after her emotional resignation as Boris Johnson’s press secretary. A video of her joking about holding Christmas parties during Covid lockdowns had sparked an angry public backlash.

Now Stratton works for Bloomberg. Her verdict on Rachel Reeves’ tears yesterday (🎁 free to read) must have brought back memories of a personal and professional nadir of her own. “‘You would have to be a sociopath to go into politics these days,’ texted a friend of mine, a veteran of the last Labour government,” opened Stratton.

Yet, she says, “I feel queasy even parsing meaning from these tears, and perhaps we could all rise above this flash of humanity […] As someone who has also not been able to hold back tears when in the public eye, it was – as people said to me at the time too – almost impossible to watch the chancellor’s face.

“There’s a savagery to public life: politics is, I was repeatedly told in government, a ‘contact sport.’”

This being Bloomberg, Stratton looks to the root cause of Labour’s problems, and has a savage dig at the backbenchers causing Reeves so many problems. “There is not so much an air of unreality to the backbench Labour Party as a powerful sense that many simply don’t get economics.”

🗣️What “contact” sparked the upset? Last night, Keir Starmer was insisting her tears were caused by a “personal matter” that was “nothing to do with politics”. But the Chancellor had, moments before appearing in the Commons yesterday, had a row with the Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, after she had been dismissive of him during a debate the previous day. Hoyle ended up apologising once she’d sat down, according to the BBC: “That’s what set her off,” said an eyewitness. The Speaker’s office hasn’t commented.

🗣️It doesn’t really matter what caused the tears, suggests Robert Shrimsley at the FT (£). “There are some images that cannot be unseen,” he says. “A crying chancellor is one of them. A politician who encouraged people to style her as an iron finance chief simply cannot afford to show that kind of vulnerability […] It’s unfair but some images are defining, whatever the nuance.”

🗣️The Mail wheels out a body language expert, usually only deployed for Royal occasions, to interpret what was happening on the Government front bench. Judi James’s pithy insight is that “Starmer looks pinned between sneers and tears” - the sneers belonging to his deputy, Angela Rayner. Rayner is, of course, tipped by some (£) to be the next Prime Minister, should her current boss not improve his performance between now and next May’s elections.

🗣️The most sympathetic voice comes from Victoria Richards in the Independent. “Imagine being Rachel Reeves,” she suggests: surrounded by warring colleagues, being broadcast live to the nation, when the Prime Minister - “friend, loyal supporter, employer” - “fails to openly back you.”

“I’d cry, too, if I were Reeves. Wouldn’t you?”

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 The former Chief Executive of the SNP, Peter Murrell, will get legal aid as he faces embezzlement charges - but could have to fund his own defence should the SNP repay the £60,000 it owes him. (Express)

📣 The University of Dundee’s new finance officer has quit after only eight days in the job. The troubled University is now searching for its fourth finance officer in less than a year. (Herald)

📣 An investigation has been launched after wildfires ravaged 7,500 hectares of land in the Highlands and Moray, killing thousands of animals. (STV)

📣 The King appeared in high spirits during a military parade at Holyrood House in Edinburgh, as he continued his traditional Royal Week duties in the city. (Mail)

AROUND THE UK

📣 Convicted killer Lucy Letby could face more charges over deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at hospitals where she worked. (Independent)

📣 The former head of the Royal Navy has been sacked and stripped of his commission after he had an affair with a subordinate. Sir Ben Key had been suspended after the husband of the female colleague raised a complaint, and had asked to leave quietly. But the defence secretary and others insisted on an inquiry, making Key the first person in the office in 500 years to be investigated for misconduct. (Telegraph) (Guardian)

📣 An estimated 120,000 Citroen C3 and DS3 drivers have been told not to drive their cars because of a problem with airbags. They face a long wait to get the issue fixed. (BBC)

📣 McVities has “encouraged” a British biscuit museum to scrap a Jaffa Cakes exhibit because they “misclassified” the treat as a biscuit. In news that may conclusively end almost a century of dull biscuit vs cake conversations, the company sent a light-hearted cease and desist letter to the Peak Freans Biscuit Museum in London, insisting they are “Not biscuits. Not hybrid snacks. Just cakes. Some would say the clue is in the name on the box.” (The Mail has the exclusive)

AROUND THE WORLD

🌎 US contractors working in Gaza say security staff are using live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scramble for food. Two contractors have spoken to AP, saying “security staff hired were often unqualified, unvetted, heavily armed and seemed to have an open license to do whatever they wished.” (AP has the exclusive)

• Israel used a powerful and indiscriminate 500lb bomb in its strike on a beachfront cafe in Gaza - a possible war crime, according to experts in international law. (Guardian)

🌎 Rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was convicted of transportation to engage in prostitution, but cleared of more serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking after a high-profile trial. But he was denied bail as he awaits sentencing, and could still face up to 20 years in prison. (BBC)

🌎 Kush, a drug made with ingredients shipped from the UK, is ruining lives in Africa. (Sky News has the exclusive).

SPORT

⚽️ Rangers have added two players to their ranks: the signing of Joe Rothwell from Bournemouth, previously announced, has been confirmed. And young defender Emmanuel Fernandez arrives from Peterborough. (The Sun)

• Next up may be midfielder David Brooks, who worked with Rangers manager Russell Martin at Southampton (Daily Record) and/or Thelo Aasgaard of Luton Town (Daily Record)

⚽️ Hosts Switzerland didn’t enjoy themselves on the opening day of the Women’s Euros, losing 2-1 to Norway thanks to an own goal and VAR. (Guardian)

🎾 Cameron Norrie managed a rousing comeback to upset Frances Tiafoe, marking a return to form after an injury-hit year. (Guardian)

🎾 Emma Raducanu played one of her best matches “in a long time” to outclass Marketa Vondrousova and move into the final 32 at Wimbledon. (BBC)