Andy Burnham is sworn is an MP
Andy Burnham is sworn is an MP
With Andy Burnham looking increasingly likely to become prime minister next month, speculation is mounting about who might be in his top team.
The BBC understands Rachel Reeves will be replaced as chancellor and offered a more junior cabinet position.
Here are some of the MPs and advisers thought likely to be part of a Burnham government, if he succeeds in gaining power.
James Purnell
James Purnell, a longstanding ally of Burnham who served alongside him in Gordon Brown’s cabinet, has been lined up as his Downing Street chief of staff.
When Purnell stood down as the MP for Stalybridge and Hyde, in Greater Manchester, in 2010, Burnham described it as “a great loss to frontline politics”, adding: “James is a great friend of mine and a man of huge intellect and talent.”
A year earlier, Purnell had quit as work and pensions secretary in a failed attempt to topple Brown as leader.
After leaving politics, Purnell returned to the BBC, where he had previously been head of corporate planning, serving first as director of strategy and digital, and then head of radio and education, before moving into the lobbying world as chief executive of Flint Global.
Ed Miliband
When Miliband won the Labour leadership in 2010, Burnham came fourth. In that contest Burnham positioned himself to Miliband’s right.
Years later, the two have become aligned in their belief in a more interventionist state.
Many around Sir Keir have been deeply suspicious to say the least of Miliband’s behaviour as energy secretary over recent months, believing he was agitating for Burnham behind the scenes.
He is thought to covet the role of chancellor, having spent many years advising Gordon Brown in the Treasury under New Labour.
Wes Streeting
The former health secretary has thrown his weight behind Burnham rather than launching a long-promised leadership bid of his own.
Team Streeting insist he has not not done this because he has been offered a job by Burnham.
“He’s done it because it’s the best way forward for the country,” one adviser told the BBC.
But there is speculation he may be offered the crucial role of chancellor.
Angela Rayner
The former deputy prime minister had been lining up her own leadership bid after settling her tax affairs with HM Revenue and Customs.
She remains a powerful figure on Labour’s “soft left” – now the dominant faction in Parliament – and it is hard to see her not being offered a role in a Burnham government.
Louise Haigh
Louise Haigh and Anneliese Midgley at Burnham’s by-election victory rally
Louise Haigh and Anneliese Midgley at Burnham’s by-election victory rally
The former transport secretary was the first of Sir Keir’s cabinet ministers to quit, after it emerged in November 2024 that she had a fraud conviction prior to entering parliament.
On the backbenches she emerged as a crucial power broker on Labour’s “soft left”, and was at the heart of the huge rebellion which scuppered the government’s welfare cuts in 2025.
She was a major figure in Burnham’s Makerfield by-election campaign, basing herself in the constituency, and is in line for a big cabinet job.
Anneliese Midgley
Midgley has only been the MP for Knowsley, not far from Makerfield, since 2024 but she has been an influential force in the Labour movement for much longer than that.
She worked for Sir Keir’s office in opposition following stints at the TUC, Unite and in former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s team.
She is seen as a plausible candidate for chief whip or even to be political secretary in Downing Street, not a job usually held by an elected politician.
Miatta Fahnbulleh
Fahnbulleh resigned as a junior minister for communities in the aftermath of the May elections, but unlike most of those who quit the government she is from Labour’s soft left, not its right.
Since then she has been working on policy ideas for a potential Burnham government. She was previously a civil servant and ran the New Economics Foundation think tank.
Lucy Powell
Lucy Powell is a longstanding Burnham ally
Lucy Powell is a longstanding Burnham ally
As the independently-elected deputy leader, Lucy Powell has her own big role to play regardless of who the Labour leader is.
But as it stands she is not in the cabinet so only has influence over party matters and not the government.
This is likely to change should Burnham become prime minister. The pair have worked closely together for years given she is a Manchester MP.
Heidi Alexander
Only four MPs are left who voted for Burnham to become leader the first time he tried, in 2010. One of them is Alexander, now the transport secretary.
She also backed him in 2015, a race he began as frontrunner, and is likely to be in line for a big job should he gain power.
Lord O’Neill and Richard Hughes
Burnham consulted high-level advisers, especially on economics, in the days before his by-election win in Makerfield.
In a sign he is preparing programmes for national policy, and to communicate stability to the markets should he become prime minister, Burnham has been taking advice from Lord O’Neill, a former Treasury minister and economist.
He has also been advised by Hughes, the former chairman of the Office of Budget Responsibility, who resigned after an IT leak of Budget numbers.
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Kate Green
Green was Burnham’s deputy mayor for policing and crime, and has been canvassing MPs about their opinions on what a Burnham government should do and is seen as a possible candidate for a role in Downing Street.
Before taking up her current role in 2023 she was an MP for 12 years, including a stint in Sir Keir’s shadow cabinet.
Kevin Lee
Kevin Lee has been at Burnham’s side for many years
Kevin Lee has been at Burnham’s side for many years
Burnham’s closest adviser, Lee ran his first Labour leadership campaign in 2010, advised him when he was shadow health secretary and has been running his mayoral office since 2017. A dead cert for a role in a Burnham Downing Street.
Josh Simons
Josh Simons and Miatta Fahnbulleh in the front row at Burnham’s victory rally
Josh Simons and Miatta Fahnbulleh in the front row at Burnham’s victory rally
The man who gave up his Makerfield seat for Burnham, Simons is said to have been helping Team Burnham on policy, though he has a different ideological background to Fahnbulleh.
He has been on a rapid political rollercoaster: he worked for and then fell out with Jeremy Corbyn; ran a pro-Starmer think tank; became an MP and quickly a minister, from which he had to resign over accusations about his conduct at the think tank.
He is seen as a likely candidate for a role in a Burnham Downing Street.
Neal Lawson
A veteran figure on Labour’s progressive left as the founder of the pressure group Compass, Lawson has also been a leading figure in the fairly new organisation Mainstream, which has generally been seen as Burnham-aligned.
But his ideas on electoral reform and alliances between progressive parties sit uneasily with others in Burnham’s orbit – it will be fascinating to see if Lawson is given a role or not.
