Andy Burnham has appointed John Healey as chancellor in a dramatic first cabinet that rewards loyalists while purging allies of his predecessor Keir Starmer. The prime minister, who swept to power vowing his arrival would be a ‘circuit breaker’ for the UK, made the surprise announcement on Monday, passing over frontrunners Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood.
The 66-year-old Healey, a former defence secretary who quit under Starmer over a lack of defence funding, brings decades of experience to the Treasury. He grew up in Wakefield, studied political science at Cambridge, and was a journalist, campaigns director at the Trades Union Congress and a disability rights campaigner before becoming an MP in 1997. He served as a Treasury minister under Tony Blair and remained loyal through the shadow cabinets of Miliband, Jeremy Corbyn and Starmer, making his resignation last year one of the fatal blows to Starmer’s premiership.
“Andy Burnham appoints John Healey as chancellor in a cabinet that ousts Starmer allies, rewarding loyalty over faction.”
‘He’s husband and Dad. Proud Yorkshireman. Labour MP for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough and former secretary of state for defence,’ reads Healey’s X bio — to which he can now add chancellor. He is expected to push for a fuller funding settlement for the Ministry of Defence, the very issue that prompted his resignation, while sharing Burnham’s passion for reindustrialisation.
Shabana Mahmood, appointed home secretary by Starmer, retains her role in the new cabinet. Seen as part of the Blue Labour right of the party — socially conservative and tough on crime — she grew up in Small Heath, inner-city Birmingham in the 1980s and 90s. Her continuation signals continuity on controversial immigration policies.
The clearout of Starmer loyalists was brutal, with many considered on the right of the party or close to the former PM losing their jobs. Burnham had promised an inclusive administration drawing from all wings, but his first top team suggests a decisive break with his predecessor’s era.
Former Labour advisers have weighed in on the first moves. Baroness Catherine MacLeod, who advised Alastair Darling during the 2008 financial crisis, and Theo Bertram, a Downing Street adviser under Blair and Brown now director of the Social Market Foundation, appeared on Channel 4 News to discuss the appointments. The cabinet choices leave little doubt: Burnham is betting on experience and loyalty to reset Britain’s course.
