John Healey has been named Chancellor after Rachel Reeves was sacked and refused another Cabinet post.
The former Defence Secretary resigned from Sir Keir Starmer’s Cabinet over spending allocated to his department, and will now return in the most high profile role after the Prime Minister.
He leapfrogged Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood who were heavily tipped for the role. Mr Miliband was unpopular with the markets, while Ms Mahmood’s experience in financial and economic affairs were questioned.
Mr Healey is expected to be involved in announcing new measures tomorrow to tackle the cost of living and will be central to the new tax measures Mr Burnham is keen to develop ahead of the autumn budget.
The number of sacked ministers reached almost a dozen as Mr Burnham shaped his new team which is also expected to include Burnham campaigner Lousie Haigh.
Eight full cabinet ministers are out: Ms Reeves, David Lammy (foreign), Liz Kendall (science and technology) Peter Kyle (business), Hilary Benn (Northern Ireland), Jo Stevens (Welsh), Darren Jones (PM’s Office) and Steve Reed (housing).
Lord Richard Hermer is no longer attorney general. Lord Vallance resigned as science minister. He was the former chief scientific adviser who played a key role in the government’s response to the Covid pandemic and was regarded by the scientific community as being close to developing science policy. His main achievement was to align that extra spending with the government’s growth agenda.
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