What Andy Burnham’s new-look Cabinet says about UK’s direction

What Andy Burnham’s new-look Cabinet says about UK’s direction A big Cabinet reshuffle under the incoming PM yielded some surprises — and opened up some potential new Westminster dramas. By SAM BLEWETTin London Newly appointed Chancellor John Healey leaves Downing Street in London as new Prime Minister Andy Burnham names his Cabinet on July 20, 2026. | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Britain’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham wasted no time Monday showing that there is much more to him than the friendly, folksy image he’s cultivated in public by swiftly banishing Keir Starmer’s closest allies from the Cabinet. The former mayor gave pure Westminster with his ruthless first acts in the job, a reminder that, as one of his big supporters told POLITICO last month, inside is a “cold-hearted lizard of a politician.” During a round of telephone sackings, Starmerites from Chancellor Rachel Reeves to Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy were demoted all the way to the backbenches. In their stead, Burnham is forming a top team spanning the mainstream wings of the party, including key northern allies and ministers who fell out with Starmer. Here’s who’s up, who’s down and who’s made a lateral move. The winners The biggest surprise was John Healey becoming chancellor. The second-most-important job in government was a big reward for the MP whose resignation as defense secretary a little over five weeks ago ensured there could be no chance of Starmer fighting on. Healey will insist that he quit purely on principle over how the Starmer administration was failing to sufficiently increase defense spending in a perilous world. But that resignation also came with a barb about the “unwilling” Treasury he now commands. Angela Rayner, who is the new housing secretary, rings the doorbell as she arrives at No. 10 Downing St. in London on July 20, 2026. | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images He will have to fill the multi-billion-pound holes in government spreadsheets created by the Defence Investment Plan that was ultimately agreed after he quit, and work out how to facilitate the major hike in defense spending to 3 percent of GDP by 2030, as he demanded. To tax more or to cut existing budgets? That is the question. For now, he will be seen as a safe pair of hands with experience across government, including in the Treasury back in Tony Blair’s administration in the 2000s. Burnham will hope he’s sufficiently safe not to spook the bond markets, which have at times been jittery about the prospect of this new PM. One No. 10 official insisted Burnham and Healey have the “same outlook” when it comes to re-industrialization, devolution and the cost of living — key planks of Burnham’s plans — as well as the need to stick with the government’s “fiscal rules” aimed at securing economic stability. Ed Miliband is now Britain’s top diplomat. One of Labour’s former leaders, who failed to win a general election in 2015, he had been an ally of Starmer — until he refused to be reshuffled out of the energy secretary brief. He then became one of the first members of the Cabinet to tell Starmer he should quit. Now he is Burnham’s voice to the world. The new boss wants to focus relentlessly on the domestic. So, having a big figure from Labour’s left in charge of the foreign brief could help smooth that ride. Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood, who had both been strongly tipped to become chancellor, arrive in Downing Street together on July 20, 2026. | Ryan Jenkinson/Getty Images Then again, Miliband will have to lead relations with the White House. Moving Miliband out of the energy role may open a pathway for Britain to do a little more extraction of oil and gas in the North Sea. But his credentials as an environmental champion are unlikely to endear him to Donald Trump, who has repeatedly encouraged Britain to drill for North Sea oil. And Miliband has already proved, repeatedly, to be a thorn in America’s side. While leader of the opposition in 2013, he successfully blocked the British gov