Labour's TWO lame ducks: Turmoil at the Treasury as Keir Starmer scrambles to shore up his flailing Chancellor Rachel Reeves amid bond market mayhem - while Tulip Siddiq is mired in Bangladeshi corrup

Keir Starmer was struggling to contain turmoil in the Treasury last night as pressure mounted on Rachel Reeves and her deputy Tulip Siddiq. Sir Keir said that, despite stuttering growth, surging government borrowing costs and a growing business backlash, Ms Reeves was doing a ‘fantastic job’ running the economy. The Prime Minister through a protective arm around Chancellor Rachel Reeves, saying she was doing a 'fantastic job' managing the economy Sir Keir signalled that the Treasury may have to make emergency spending cuts within months unless government borrowing rates fall No 10 said the PM had 'full confidence' in City minister Tulip Siddiq, who is facing growing pressure over corruption allegations, which she denies The developments came as: Markets piled further pressure on the Chancellor, with long-term government borrowing costs hitting a new 27-year high yesterday and the pound suffering for a fifth day in a row The president of the CBI warned that Labour’s controversial workers’ rights charter would cost jobs and become ‘an adventure playground’ for employment lawyers Sir Keir signalled that the Treasury may have to make emergency spending cuts within months unless government borrowing rates fall back A Bangladeshi politician called for a full corruption probe into whether Ms Siddiq, whose aunt ruled the country with an iron fist until last year, had any involvement in money being ‘looted from a Third World country’ Ms Reeves returned from a controversial trip to China where a promised reset of relations with the communist superpower produced just £120 million a year in extra investment Ministers are braced for more gloomy economic data which is expected to show that both inflation and growth are off course Tory leader Kemi Badenoch also turned her fire on the Chancellor and her beleaguered junior minister last night. ‘Labour promised stability and instead the City minister is mired in corruption investigations and the Chancellor is hanging on by her fingernails.’ The PM insisted that he would 'stick to fiscal rules' during a major speech at University College London Sir Keir speaks with researchers during a visit to the Manufacturing Futures Lab at UCL on Monday Fellow Tory MP Neil O’Brien, who worked in the Treasury under George Osborne, said: ‘This Labour Government feels tired and sleazy with the anti-corruption minister mired in corruption and the Chancellor clinging on to her job despite the grotesque failure of her Budget.’ Ms Reeves has faced mounting pressure in recent days after financial markets turned on the UK, pushing her towards breaking her own ‘fiscal rules’ when the Office for Budget Responsibility publishes an update on the economy on March 26. Jane Gratton, of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: ‘Business confidence has been hit hard since the Budget.’ And the Institute of Directors said Ms Reeves’s Budget had resulted in a ‘precipitous decline in business confidence’, adding that ‘the snuffing out of growth in the latter part of 2024 will leave the Chancellor with little fiscal room if any’.