Rachel Reeves interview leaves furious BBC Breakfast viewers with same complaint

The Chancellor of the Exchequer gave her first interview of 2026 on BBC Breakfast.

Rachel Reeves asked about digital ID U-turn on BBC Breakfast

Rachel Reeves’ first interview of 2026 was slammed by BBC Breakfast viewers who claimed hosts Sally Nugent and Jon Kay were “soft” on the Chancellor. Taking to X one fumed: “Appalling, so tone deaf. Em, er. Softest of interviewers hence her turning up on that show.” Another added: “The worst interviewers ever ! If only the BBC had someone like @afneil! Who can challenge politicians unlike these two useless mules.” A third chimed in: “First live interview wasted. Just stop her when she deviates. We do not want to listen to her repeating herself to avoid answering questions.”

A fourth complained: “Would be nice to hear her talk rather than the TV presenters talking over her all the time….” A fifth opined: “Just watched Rachel Reeves on BBC Breakfast, one of the most painful things I’ve ever had to watch.” However a sixth felt she was at foult rather than the presenters penning: “Watching Rachel Reeves on the BBC News interview this morning 14.01.26 and the most answers to most of her answers to questions were err, ahh. Not good with words and not very good with crunching numbers!”

During the interview Reeves was grilled on Labour’s repeated U-turns. The Chancellor was asked why the Government keeps changing its mind after it emerged that digital ID would no longer be mandatory to work in the UK in the latest climbdown.

That followed other reversals by Sir Keir Starmer, including axing winter fuel payments for most pensioners and the inheritance tax raid on farmers. Presenter Sally Nugent said: “It’s a change of heart, it’s a U-turn, and it’s one of many U-turns we’ve seen from the Government over the last 18 months.

“We’ve had digital IDs, two-child benefit cap, the grooming gangs inquiry, the comments you rowed back from about being an island of strangers, welfare reform, winter fuel payments, farmers and inheritance tax, and now pub business rates. Why do you keep changing your mind?”

Ms Reeves insisted the Government was “pretty relaxed” about what form of digital documentation people use to prove their right to work. She said: “On the digital ID, for starters, I do think this story has been a bit overwritten.

Rachel Reeves was interviewed by Jon Kay and Sally Nugent on BBC Breakfast (Image: BBC)

“We are saying that you will need a mandatory digital ID to be able to work in the UK. Now the difference is whether that has to be one piece of ID, a digital ID card, or whether it could be an e-visa or an e-passport, and we’re pretty relaxed about what form that takes.”

But host Jon Kay then jumped in and said: “The Prime Minister wasn’t very relaxed when he stood at a lectern only a few weeks ago and said this is absolutely going to happen, it’s really important to have a digital ID that we’re going to introduce.”

Asked about how the latest U-turn makes the Government look, she told BBC Breakfast: “Well, I don’t think most people mind whether it is one piece of digital ID or a form of digital ID that can be verified.

“But the point is, we’re trying to address a problem, and the question is how to do that.”