Monday 29 June 2026 10:01 am  |  Updated:  Monday 29 June 2026 10:05 am

Burnham’s choice of Chancellor will define his premiership

By: Eliot Wilson

Share

Facebook Share on Facebook X Share on Twitter LinkedIn Share on LinkedIn WhatsApp Share on WhatsApp Email Share on Email

Economic policy is so fraught that Burnham must choose from various paths. Retaining Reeves means warmed-over Starmerism; Miliband would be a sign that the Labour Party is tacking left; and choosing Streeting would be an advertisement that the Blairites were getting the band back together. What signal will the next Prime Minister seek to send? Asks Eliot Wilson

Westminster watchers love speculation about ministerial reshuffles and changes of government. It is the political equivalent of fantasy football, or perhaps ‘casturbation’, assigning roles to your favourite actors in an imaginary film. Currently the circumstances for this are ideal: it is overwhelmingly likely that Andy Burnham will be the next Prime Minister, but he cannot formally take office until 17 July or so. That leaves nearly a month of glorious, brow-furrowing speculation.

Speculation is not always idle. It has already been confirmed that Burnham will bring in as Downing Street Chief of Staff his old friend and fellow former Cabinet minister James Purnell, a bone-deep Blairite who was Work and Pensions Secretary until 2009 but walked away from the front line in protest at Gordon Brown’s leadership.

There is huge interest in who will serve as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the nouveau régime. Running HM Treasury is a critical post in any administration – to an excessive degree, I would argue – and in the nuanced circumstances of an ousted Prime Minister giving way to a challenger from the same........

© City A.M.