Has Andy Burnham already made one big mistake?
Andy Burnham’s first week as PM has been one of small changes to help public pockets, as well as the announcement of his new cabinet. But has he made a blunder in a key appointment?
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What’s the story?
The first week of Andy Burnham in Downing Street has been a busy one.
For the British public, there has been a VAT cut on energy bills, a £2 bus fare cap and a cut in business rates for pubs, clubs and music venues.
But behind the black door of No.10, the biggest moment was the announcement of Andy Burnham’s cabinet.
Out went Rachel Reeves, David Lammy and Darren Jones from top roles, in came John Healey, Louise Haigh and Angela Rayner. But did Burnham make one big mistake in his front bench appointments?
Neal Lawson, writer, founder of Labour lobby group Compass believes Ed Miliband (moved from energy secretary to foreign sec) was the obvious choice for chancellor, despite the role going to Healey.
Burnham has promised to reverse “four decades of neoliberalism", which began until the leadership of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
"The cabinet is an upgrade on what was there before," he tells Lewis Goodall.
"It's good to see people like Miatta Fahnbulleh in there. It's good to see Angela Rayner back. but if you are serious about rolling back 40 years of neoliberalism, the first person you think of as your chancellor is not John Healey."
Healey served as shadow housing secretary in Jeremy Corbyn's Labour, and more recently as defence secretary under Keir Starmer. His resignation from the role in June 2026, stating Starmer was "unwilling to commit the resources" to keep the UK safe, was seen by many as the final piece in the former PM's downfall.
"John Healey is a very decent, loyal, and good Labour politician, a senior one at that – but he has not been spending his whole life thinking about how you roll back 40 years of neoliberalism," Lawson adds.
"There is one person in the cabinet who has been thinking about that and knows how to run the Treasury, and Burnham decided not to put that person in – Ed Milliband."
Miliband previously led the party between 2010 and 2015, and has also served as shadow business secretary.
Did Keir Starmer try to 'destroy' different views in Labour?
Andy Burnham's cabinet spans the range of Labour views, and there have been suggestions that MPs who backed the former Greater Manchester MP or urged Starmer to leave, were rewarded for their "disloyalty".
Lawson says criticism of "factionalism" in the new Labour cabinet is misplaced.
"Factionalism is not a bad thing. Factionism is a good thing," he says.
"There are different groups in the party who have different ideas and different thoughts, and they should contest those ideas, because out of contesting ideas, you get better ones.
"What you want is a plural factionalism, with all the voices."
The approach to factionalism, he adds, was one of Starmer's biggest mistakes.
"What we had under Keir and Morgan McSweeney was a hyper-factionalism, which was about destroying every other voice in the Labour Party," he says.
"If Andy thinks that he can have a unified party where we all agree and we're all the same, I think that's a mistake.
"It's not the reality, it's not the basis of generating new ideas and new thoughts."
'It will get tough – and MPs will turn on Burnham'
The downside of having a cabinet of opposing views, and potentially loyalties, Lawson says, is just how long his team will stick by Burnham.
"Andy is going to find that when it gets tough in government – and it will get tough very quickly – that you always need people around you who are incredibly solid and supportive of what you're doing," Lawson says.
"I think that the reshuffle didn't bring enough of those people into positions that can support him and help him.
"There are fair-weather friends, and they will turn against him, when they see the opportunity. I hope he knows it."