Rachel Reeves surprised onlookers when she gave a stern rebuke to a foul-mouthed heckler who shouted at her from his van as she conducted a broadcast interview.
However, the chancellor has won support from unlikely sources, with Conservative politicians backing her response.
As Reeves answered questions from the media at a petrol station in Leeds after announcing she would scrap a planned fuel duty rise, she was heckled by a man who appeared to be a Reform UK supporter.
As he walked into the station to pay, he shouted: “Get Keir Starmer fucking out.” When he left in his van, he continued to yell at the chancellor: “Get Labour out. Get Keir Starmer out. Nigel Farage, Come on, Nigel.”
Driving off in his van, St George’s flags flying, he continued: “Am I going to get arrested? We’ve got English flags on here, Rachel. Are we going to be arrested? You’re ruining the country. Get Keir Starmer out. Look, England flags. Yous are useless. Labour party is useless.”
Reeves responded by saying: “I love our country, and one of the things about our country is good manners. Not very British.” She then joked that he appeared not to have heard her announcement about freezing fuel duty.
The shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, defended Reeves’s comeback to the heckler.
He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge: “On the point of good manners, she is right … our discourse around politics should be civil and polite and that’s part of being British and that’s something we should fight for.”
He added, however, that some people were right to feel “disappointed by decisions this government has taken” and said Reeves had made a “mess” of the economy.
The Tory peer Daniel Hannan said: “I sense that this is out of temper with the times but, for once, I am on Rachel Reeves’s side. Civility matters in politics and if we stop policing the boundaries, things slide very quickly. I’m afraid I don’t see it as remotely brave to shout at a woman while you drive away.”
Reform UK politicians did not share this view. Nigel Farage posted on X: “I’d like to buy this man a pint. Does anyone know how I can find him?”
Robert Jenrick, Reform’s spokesperson for economics, said: “He sounds British to me, Rachel! Good for him. This reaction explains why Reeves rarely leaves her bunker in Westminster.”
Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesperson, also offered him a future peerage, saying: “Could this legendary gentleman please get in touch. A future Reform government would like to give him a peerage for this outstanding public service. He can do similar to all the crooks currently sitting in the House of Lords!”
