Channel 5 viewers and Brexit voters were left up in arms on Monday morning after one guest on daytime talk show Jeremy Vine shared her thoughts on the calls for Rachel Reeves to resign.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has spearheaded the backlash against the Chancellor following last week’s Budget, in which she claimed the government had implemented tax rises specifically to fund welfare spending and misled the Cabinet over the size of the fiscal “repair job” in front of them.
Ms Reeves has rejected the claims that she misled the public about the state of Britain’s finances.
“(The £4.2 billion surplus) would have been the lowest surplus that any Chancellor ever delivered against the fiscal rules,” she told the BBC. “I was clear I wanted to build up that resilience, and that is why I took those decisions.”
Debating whether the Chancellor should remain in her position on the Channel 5 show were broadcaster Jemma Forte and former MEP Annunziata Rees-Mogg.
And it didn’t take long for the pair’s opposing views on Ms Reeves’s position to become clear as they clashed in a rather heated head-to-head.
“The run-up to this budget has been a bit of a fiasco,” Ms Forte conceded. “We don’t want to hear, this might land, or this might land. It does create uncertainty, and then it gets to the point where it’s like, what is this Budget?
“However, since the Budget, the markets have been very stable. There hasn’t been any volatility. Nothing has crashed.”
Ms Forte’s defence went on: “And I think that my problem with this government is that I don’t think the Budget is great, I think there’s lots of meh things about it, it’s very draggy, etc. It’s not bold enough.
“But that’s different. Is it sort of competent? Well, yes. And we now have to sort of live with it.
“If you just sack someone and scapegoat someone, you create huge instability, actually. That really destabilises the economy.”
After insisting the Budget fell under the bracket of “competent”, Ms Forte then took aim at those who have been vocal in their opposition to its contents.
She fumed: “I think there should be a blanket rule that any paper like The Express that thought that Liz Truss and Brexit was a good idea for the economy, they should probably tap out. Sit this one out.
“Because the reason that this country is in such dire economic (state) — and John Major made a blistering speech, look it up if you didn’t hear it, 11th of November at the LSE, at the London School of Economics…
“Very, very clear. All the economists are in total agreement. £100billion this country is losing-” Ms Forte went on, although by this point, Ms Rees-Mogg had had enough.
“They’re not,” Ms Reed-Mogg interrupted, to which Ms Forte continued: “And that is because of Brexit. And that is why we are scrambling around.”
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“Rachel Reeves tried to blame Brexit for a hole that didn’t exist, which is highly ironic,” Ms Rees-Mogg commented, prompting Ms Forte to fire back: “Are you saying that Brexit hasn’t damaged the economy?”
“I am, actually, yes. Because we’ve done better, so there you go,” Ms Rees-Mogg promptly shot back, leaving Ms Forte floundering: “No, no, no. You can’t disagree with the entirety of the city-“
Ms Rees-Mogg ignored her fellow panellist as she continued: “I thought we were talking about Rachel Reeves. Market manipulation is a really serious crime that carries 10 years in jail.
“If you’re a finance director of a listed company and you gave out or withheld material information, you would be looking at a criminal sentence.”
“So what’s your thought here? That she was fishing for a reaction from the markets?” Mr Vine asked, but Ms Forte intervened: “I’m sorry, this hypocrisy. Your brother made so much money out of Brexit. And I’m sorry, around that time, people were shorting the pound- “
“He didn’t. He was a minister. He couldn’t. This is an absolute fallacy,” Ms Rees-Mogg insisted, as she defended her brother, Jacob Rees-Mogg.
She continued: “Apart from the fact that investment managers are designed to make money for their clients, this market manipulation is a very serious crime.
“I’ve worked for many companies and had to sign and get other people to sign material non-public information agreements.”
Mr Vine attempted to calm the conversation slightly, chipping in: “I’m trying to get at what you’re saying. You think Rachel Reeves said, we might raise income taxes, knowing that the markets will go up that would then reduce the cost of borrowing without ever having the intention of raising the income tax. Is that correct?”
“Yeah,” Ms Rees-Mogg said, to which Mr Vine added: “So she was sort of what do you call, pitch rolling the markets? That’s illegal.”
Ms Forte again jumped to Ms Reeves’s defence: ” I don’t think – it sounds derogatory – but in a way, you’re giving her too much credit.
“I just think that the kind of incompetence has been sort of fishing around for ideas to try and get the economy on track. I don’t think it is going to fix it.”
Ms Rees-Mogg interjected: “It doesn’t matter if it’s incompetence or design; neither is excusable under the law.”
Inevitably, once a clip of the Jeremy Vine guests’ debate was shared online, several viewers were left unimpressed with some of the points made.
“Get her off this show. It’s always the fault of Brexit,” one X user fumed in regard to Ms Forte’s stance. A second echoed: “So far down the road and sad, pathetic losers are still bleating on!”
“Brexit Brexit Brexit…. f****n get over it,” a third hit out, while a fourth weighed in: “Reeves – stability – competent!!! Jemma Forte is round the bend.”
“There should be a rule that papers who thought Truss would be good for the economy should tap out.”@jemmaforte says Rachel Reeves should stay in post to maintain stability, while backers of Brexit and the mini-budget should be ignored.@zatzi | @theJeremyVine | #JeremyVine pic.twitter.com/RxotlQcXI2
— Jeremy, Storm & Vanessa On 5 (@JeremyVineOn5) December 1, 2025
“Safe to say that she is in a very VERY small minority with this view of bizarrely supporting liars and cheats!!!! #ChampagneSocialist,” a fifth argued.
“Is she still remoaning?” another questioned, while a seventh blasted: “Jemma once again proving she, like Rachel Thieves knows nothing about economics.
“If this had been the Tories or Reform, the likes of Jemma would be shouting from the hill stops they need to resign and be investigated. But because it’s Labour, then it’s OK to lie to parliament etc.”
However, Ms Forte did receive support from some viewers watching at home. “I love Jemma she outshines Vine with all his claptrack #JeremyVine,” one supporter said.
“Well said Jemma,” another typed, followed by an applause emoji, while fellow Jeremy Vine regular Narinder Kaur also showed her support: “Jemma looks beautiful. And obviously is speaking total sense.” (sic)
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