It was a warm day in July when the new Labour prime minister walked into Downing Street promising meaningful change: A cabinet made up of figures hailing from different wings of the movement – albeit some better represented than others – designed seemingly with party management as much of a consideration as relevant expertise. There were notable absences and some surprises, but ultimately, the group assembled was there to enact the clear plans that would come out of No 10, from a prime minister who was dead serious about delivery.
A PM who had already changed Labour would now seek to change the country.
Two years later, here we are again.
Two strong northern women who were forced out of Keir Starmer’s cabinet have returned: Louise Haigh, as the most powerful woman in government, will seek to drive No 10’s agenda across Whitehall from the Cabinet Office, and Angela Rayner, who will return to her one-time perch at the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government, tasked with enacting one of Burnham’s few unambiguously progressive pledges — to build more council housing.
Their positions, along with those of chief whip Anneliese Midgeley and education secretary Lucy Powell, mean there will be much made of this cabinet’s northern, working-class credentials – even if it is also the most Oxbridge-educated cabinet of the modern era.
The appointment of John Healey as chancellor seems a shrewd one primarily in terms of party management. Healey doesn’t carry the baggage of either Ed Miliband to the party’s right wing and/or the markets, or for that matter Shabana Mahmood, to everyone other than the markets.
That Miliband was a genuinely well-suited candidate for the role was clearly not enough to put aside factional concerns. So instead Burnham opted for a competent-seeming old(ish) white man with Treasury experience, effectively daring anyone to feel especially strongly about his choice one way or another.
The appointment of Healey sends one signal clearer than any other, though: this is a government that will find more money for ‘defence’. That issue prompted his resignation as defence secretary from Starmer’s cabinet last month and hastened the end of the previous administration. Healey’s proponents point to his relationship with the trade union movement and his work, much earlier in his career, campaigning for the minimum wage, as positive signs. But Healey is at heart a conventional Brownite economist, and few believe he has even the inclination to try and break with Treasury orthodoxy, never mind the wherewithal.
Healey’s deputy in the Treasury is a figure whose presence in the department will reassure few people outside the Square Mile, given the time she spent there herself. Emma Reynolds was re-elected to Parliament in 2024 having stepped away from Westminster after losing her seat in 2019. She spent most of the intervening period working as the top lobbyist at TheCityUK, the leading industry body representing the financial services sector.
What of the two would-be chancellors? Miliband becomes the second member of his family, after his older brother, to serve as foreign secretary, in an appointment which will see the eco-conscious left-wing economist jet-setting across the globe. The role of foreign secretary is now seen by some as increasingly ornamental, with most significant diplomacy being conducted either above it (head of state to head of state) or below it, by officials ‘on the ground’.
But with Burnham thought to be less interested in foreign affairs, and already committing to spending less time abroad than his predecessors, Miliband will likely have plenty to occupy him. As one of the leftmost figures in this cabinet, Miliband may rub some of his international counterparts up the wrong way, particularly in the US, but does possess both the confidence of mind and (whisper it) charm, needed to carry out the role to a decent standard.
Replacing Miliband at the Department for Net Zero is another genuinely leftwing figure in the form of Miatta Fahnbulleh, an economist and former head of the New Economics Foundation. Fahnbulleh is credited with much of the behind-the-scenes work on Burnham’s policy platform, though her previously strong support for net zero seems at odds with Burnham’s early decision to open the door for further North Sea oil exploration.
If Miliband provides some optimism for the left, Mahmood's continued role as Home Secretary could prove to be a fractious and unpopular decision. Her continued role at the Home Office suggests Burnham is happy with what he has seen in this department, which will sound significant alarm bells for those hoping to recapture support lost to the Greens. Mahmood’s actions and rhetoric on immigration and civil liberties in the wake of anti-genocide protests have won her precious few friends outside the party’s rightmost reaches. Nonetheless a darling of the media set, Mahmood is talked of as a competent minister who drives decisions through a department.
In Wes Streeting the UK now has a defence secretary who has publicly spoken critically about the way Israel has conducted its brutal war on Gaza. Green MP Dr Ellie Chowns wasted no time in writing to Streeting, urging him to act on his view, expressed only last month, that he “had seen serious and substantial allegations of war crimes being committed” and “felt this country had a moral and legal responsibility to respond”. Outside the context of a potential leadership election, it remains to be seen if Streeting – who has often been accused of political shapeshifting – will act upon these responsibilities, particularly as the war in Iran, a conflict largely driven by Israel’s aggression throughout the region, looks set to escalate further.
Jonathan Reynolds returns as business secretary, after a stint as chief whip, to run the new Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade – one wonders if the Northern PM was tempted to find another word to add on, beginning with ‘O’, so the new ‘beefed up’ department could be referred to as BISTO. Reynolds was a reliable backer of big business during his first stint in the role, taking every opportunity available to cosy up to the likes of BlackRock and other US mega corporations. His appointment will offer little comfort to those concerned about Burnham’s pose toward institutional capital, particularly now his role will leave him with responsibility for significant parts of (big) tech policy.
For all the talk of change, Burnham has assembled a cabinet made up in large part of the same people that his predecessor picked two years ago, even if some have been given different briefs, and the most ardent loyalists have been turfed out.
The result is a set of senior ministers united across the board by little other than, perhaps, a disbelief that having been part of such an unpopular administration, they still have a seat around the cabinet table. If that affords the new prime minister their gratitude and according goodwill, history suggests it will not last long if Burnham can’t break the cycle of failure that brought down not only his Labour predecessor, but also saw the previous four occupants of Downing Street struggle to hold on to power for long enough to get much done.
