Who's Who in a Potential Burnham Government?

Ed Miliband

Will he be Burnham’s chancellor? He is certainly among the possibilities, and Miliband allies are touting the idea. Even if not, the energy secretary is a Labour heavyweight and no Keir Starmer fan, so a job in the new cabinet feels inevitable.

Shabana Mahmood

Under different circumstances, Mahmood could be running to become Labour’s first (permanent) female leader. She is not, and there is much speculation she might even be kept in her current job of home secretary, where her hardline policies and rhetoric on immigration might be seen by Team Burnham as tempering his more left-leaning policies.

Wes Streeting

As above: didn’t run, endorsed Burnham and would now like a big job in return. Streeting is among others tipped for chancellor, although he is a mere six weeks out of the health job he resigned from in protest against Starmer, so could return. If Burnham wanted to simultaneously reward and sideline a rival, there is always the Foreign Office.

Angela Rayner

The former deputy prime minister and communities secretary left government last September after a mix-up over £40,000 in unpaid stamp duty but in May she was cleared by HMRC of any deliberate wrongdoing or carelessness, and as a leading figure on Labour’s left will almost certainly be back.

Lou Haigh

The first cabinet casualty of the Starmer era, Haigh resigned as transport secretary in November 2024 after it emerged she had been convicted of fraud over a missing work phone. The circumstances are, Haigh’s allies insist, less murky than this would indicate, and as one of Burnham’s main organisers, she will expect to come back to the cabinet.

Anneliese Midgley

The Knowsley MP has been in parliament for only two years, but has a long background as a Labour organiser, and has played a central role in Burnham’s push for No 10. As such she seems set for a move to the front of the frontbench.

Sally Jameson

Yet another member of the group of influential northern female MPs around Burnham, Jameson has represented Doncaster since 2024. Like Midgley, she has no ministerial experience but does have a background in Labour politics – as well as working for a period as a prison officer.

Yvette Cooper

The foreign secretary is hugely experienced and knows Burnham well from his last stint in parliament – Burnham finished marginally above her in second place in the 2015 Labour leadership contest. She is thus expected to stay in cabinet if not necessarily in the same job.

Lisa Nandy

The culture secretary has felt somewhat detached from the Starmer government and she is more ideologically aligned to Burnham. Her Wigan constituency even borders his in Makerfield.

Douglas Alexander

The Scotland secretary was brought back into the cabinet by Starmer when he returned to parliament after a nine-year gap but he is an experienced hand, having served in the Blair and Brown cabinets.

Miatta Fahnbulleh

Another 2024 entrant but with her background as an economist and thinktanker she was immediately brought into government by Starmer. With close links to Ed Miliband, she is an outside bet for chancellor.

Jonathan Reynolds

Open about the fact he disliked being moved from the business brief to become chief whip, Reynolds missed Starmer’s No 10 departure and was very obviously on view when Burnham posed with MPs later on Monday.

Nick Thomas-Symonds

The Cabinet Office minister with responsibility for renewed links with Europe, Thomas-Symonds is close to Starmer. But with a postponed major EU summit looming for Burnham, might he stay in the same job?

Rachel Reeves

A big hitter, not least as the UK’s first female chancellor, and she did attend Burnham’s Westminster Hall rally on Monday. But her future in government is not at all clear.

Darren Jones

Jones is a key figure in the Starmer firmament, as shown by his specially created job of chief secretary to the prime minister and his appearance in Downing Street to hear Starmer resign. But he is considered an effective government operator so may find a role.

John Healey

The final departure from Starmer’s government over his worries about the defence investment plan. Might he be back, in defence or another job? It’s not impossible.

Bridget Phillipson

By no means on the Burnham bandwagon but Phillipson is not overly tribal and her allies believe she has a case for staying in her education brief, where she has carefully shepherded tricky plans over Send provision, or getting another job.

David Lammy

The justice secretary and deputy PM is clearly a major figure in the current government. He is close to Starmer, standing front and centre of Monday’s Downing Street farewell crowd, before defending the PM’s legacy in TV interviews. Can he make the transition?

Dan Jarvis

As of just under a fortnight ago, the defence minister in place of John Healey, Jarvis will seemingly push the defence investment plan over the line before the change of PM. He might then be expected to return to a more junior ministerial role.

Steve Reed

The communities secretary is the ultimate Starmer loyalist, as far back as co-founding Labour Together, the internal thinktank that led the Starmer project. He will be awaiting a return to the backbenches.

Richard Hermer

He was essentially made attorney general because, as a close friend, Starmer knew and trusted him, and he was loyal to the end. A peer, he will return to work in the upper house and in his legal career.

Peter Kyle

The minister who in effect confirmed Starmer’s downfall on the Sunday broadcast round by saying he would not be “delusional” and say otherwise, the business secretary has no particular ties to Team Burnham and will be under no illusions.

Liz Kendall

A similar situation faces the science and technology secretary. She is on the right of the party, is not part of the Burnham gang, and will almost certainly be replaced.

James Murray

Shifted from the Treasury to take Streeting’s place as health secretary, Murray will be in the job long enough to get his picture added to the ministerial wall but that will be about it.

Keir Starmer

There has been some chatter about Burnham showing continuity by, for example, letting Starmer continue his Trump-whispering as foreign secretary. This is almost certainly not going to happen: neither man wants it, and Starmer will most likely be focused on a long summer holiday.