John Healey
The former defence secretary who quit the government over a lack of funding for the defence investment plan is the surprise appointment to the Treasury.
Healey, 66, is a steady and experienced force, having been an MP since 1997, and serving as a Treasury minister under Tony Blair.
The job had been expected to go to Ed Miliband and then it was mooted for Shabana Mahmood. But one advantage of Healey is his longstanding history on Labour frontbenches for every faction of the party. He was a minister in the Blair-Brown years and a loyal member of the shadow cabinets of Miliband, Jeremy Corbyn and Starmer.
Healey 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 entering parliament.
Unshowy and not part of the usual Westminster dramas or scandals, it was a shock when he resigned his role under Starmer, in what would be one of the fatal blows for his premiership.
In the job, he will be expected to push for a fuller funding settlement for the Ministry of Defence, which was denied to him under the Treasury of Rachel Reeves. His other major shared interest with Burnham is reindustrialisation.
His X bio describes him as “Husband and Dad. Proud Yorkshireman. Labour MP for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough and former secretary of state for defence”. He can now add chancellor to that list.
Shabana Mahmood
Mahmood will keep her role in Burnham’s cabinet after being appointed home secretary by Keir Starmer last year and charged with driving through controversial immigration policies.
She is considered to be on the Blue Labour right of the party, which is socially conservative and tough on crime. She grew up in Small Heath in inner-city Birmingham in the 1980s and 90s, where her father kept a cricket bat behind the till of the family shop to fend off would-be robbers. After going to the University of Oxford to study law, she worked as a barrister.
The 45-year-old is an MP in Birmingham and ran Labour’s election campaign in 2024, before a stint as justice secretary overseeing an early release programme to ease overcrowding. She is viewed as steely and decisive.
A cabinet colleague told the Guardian earlier this year that she “never wastes a word” in meetings, and last year warned that the government was still caught up in an opposition mindset and preoccupied with taking on the left instead of speaking to the concerns of the country more widely. She has also been a leading advocate for the UK to take a more pro-Palestinian stance, including on statehood.
Ed Miliband
Miliband is a great survivor in the Labour party – almost as much so as Andy Burnham. A former cabinet minister under Gordon Brown, he led Labour to an election defeat in 2015 before serving in the shadow cabinet of Keir Starmer.
He was a leading contender to be chancellor but there were fears his positioning on the soft left and as a firm defender of Britain’s net zero commitments would spook the financial markets. Having once made a speech pitching some companies as producers and others as predators, he is not a favourite politician of big business.
Born in north London in a political family, his father was a Marxist academic. He studied PPE at Oxford and worked mostly in politics and research before joining his older brother, David, in the House of Commons as a Labour MP.
They became the first brothers to both serve around the cabinet table since before the second world war, and their sibling relationship was put to the test when Ed beat David in the leadership contest to succeed Brown with the support of the trade union vote.
As Labour leader, he led in the polls for many months against David Cameron and identified ahead of his time the public mood on the cost of living but was pilloried by some of the rightwing media as gaffe-prone and somewhat awkward.
In Starmer’s cabinet he was viewed as one of the most successful cabinet ministers at driving through his priorities, including Great British Energy, and blocking more drilling in the North Sea – a policy expected to be partially overturned by Burnham.
As foreign secretary, he will be expected to take international matters off Burnham’s hands as much as possible, take a more pro-Gaza stance and potentially set a path to restoring Britain’s aid commitments to 0.7% of national income. He replaces Yvette Cooper.
Yvette Cooper
Among the Starmer-era big beasts who had been tipped to survive, Cooper is shifted from the Foreign Office to the vital domestic post of secretary of state for health and social care, the suffix especially important given Burnham’s stated mission to unlock the clogged adult care system.
Cooper does, of course, have recent experience of a tricky UK-focused post, starting in Starmer’s government as home secretary, and she held several posts under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
While still in her 50s, Cooper is approaching Labour “grandee” status, having been an MP since 1997 and getting her first taste of ministerial life at the tail end of the 20th century. When Labour’s 2015 leadership campaign began she was initially viewed as a favourite, but finished third behind Corbyn and a certain Andy Burnham.
The daughter of a trade union leader, Cooper is a near-political lifer, having begun her career with then-shadow chancellor John Smith, although she did spend a period as a journalist before entering parliament.
For a decade of her time in parliament, Cooper was part of a political double act with her husband, Ed Balls, who lost his seat in 2015 and later became a broadcaster.
Pat McFadden
Work and pensions secretary
Some continuity had been expected with the new ministerial slate and it makes sense for this to happen with a department that could be central to Burnham’s political fortunes.
McFadden, one of the more experienced operators in government, will be tasked with continuing to pilot through some sort of reform to social security, with the intention of limiting the costs without cuts or conditions of the sort that prompted a major backbench rebellion for Starmer.
An MP since 2005, McFadden was soon propelled into the Blair and Brown frontbenches, and spent the buildup to the 2024 election as Starmer’s national campaigns coordinator, going on to take the Cabinet Office post at the centre of policymaking.
A trusted voice on even the trickiest morning broadcast round, the child of two Irish speakers from County Donegal transplanted to Paisley, McFadden trod the traditional political path of researcher and policy adviser before winning his Wolverhampton South East seat.
Louise Haigh
Chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, first secretary of state and Cabinet Office minister
Haigh became a linchpin of Burnham’s byelection operation, so it is no surprise she is now his chief organiser in government and effectively his deputy as first secretary of state. As the most senior Cabinet Office minister, she will coordinate work across the government and oversee any changes to Whitehall.
It marks a return to cabinet for the 38-year-old Haigh, who was sacked by Keir Starmer as transport secretary for not having told him fully about a fraud conviction over a missing mobile phone when she was in her 20s.
She grew up in Sheffield and studied politics and government at LSE, then Nottingham University, before working in parliament, for Unite and later at the insurer Aviva.
It was during her time at that company where she got in hot water over the phone, having reported it stolen but failed to update the police when it was found. She pleaded guilty to fraud, but it did not stop her political career.
Elected in 2015, she was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership that year and was given a frontbench role when he made her a shadow Cabinet Office minister at age 28.
The MP for Sheffield Heeley rose through the junior ministerial ranks and was one of a handful of Corbyn’s frontbench to be appointed to Keir Starmer’s first cabinet when he took over. She became the shadow Northern Ireland secretary.
Known for an engaging communication style, she retained her frontbench role even as Starmer moved his party to the right. As transport secretary, she oversaw the nationalisation of railways legislation until she was returned to the backbenches. She replaces Darren Jones.
Wes Streeting
Streeting is one of the only appointments to cabinet who is considered to be towards the right of the party. He is also one of the reasons Burnham is prime minister, after attempting unsuccessfully to challenge Starmer, kicking off the process of removing him.
Having lost out on the top job, the role of defence secretary is still a substantial one. However, Streeting’s power is likely to be limited by the fact his predecessor, John Healey, is in the Treasury and will decide what kind of settlement the department gets for its investment plan.
A former health secretary, the ambitious Streeting is likely to be pleased at getting an even bigger job, especially at such a crucial moment in the Ukraine war and during a time of warnings that Britain needs to rearm against global threats.
Angela Eagle
A first full cabinet role for the former security minister, but not much of a jump given Eagle is hugely experienced and, in a slightly unusual dual role, was a minister of state in the environment department along with her Home Office role.
The twin of fellow Labour MP and minister Maria, Angela Eagle beat her sister into parliament by five years, winning her Wallasey seat for the first time in 1992 and getting her first shadow frontbench role as long ago as 1996.
She held a series of junior ministerial roles under Blair and Brown, and was Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow business secretary before resigning and launching a brief attempt to challenge him for the leadership.
Miatta Fahnbulleh
Fahnbulleh is a rising star in the party who contributed heavily to Burnham’s policy ideas as he was preparing for government.
She previously worked closely with Miliband so was a natural choice for the energy role and will have a crucial task in Burnham’s mission of cutting bills while sticking to commitments in net zero.
Alex Norris
The relatively low profile Alex Norris was a Home Office minister and an unexpected choice for justice secretary. A Nottingham MP, he was a trade union organiser for Unison and councillor before he entered parliament in 2017.
Heidi Alexander
Part of the relatively small continuity brigade in the Burnham cabinet, Alexander remains in the post she took over in November 2024 when the incumbent, a certain Louise Haigh, had to step down after admitting a past offence connected to a mobile phone.
While not seen as especially cosy with the Burnham inner circle, Alexander is an effective operator who tends to not get distracted by factional matters, and will have an important role in helping a PM who places much store in decent public transport, not least buses.
A south London MP from 2010, Alexander quit parliament in 2018 to become Sadiq Khan’s deputy mayor for transport in London. She returned to the Commons in 2024 in a Swindon seat, where she was born, and was soon in Starmer’s cabinet.
Jonathan Reynolds
Reynolds returns to his former role after being shuffled sideways to the job of chief whip against his wishes.
A fellow north-west MP, Reynolds has long been a friend of Burnham and has been given a crucial role in a beefed-up department that will cover science as well as his old portfolio.
Burnham has stated he wants to be pro-business, as well as fighting for reindustrialisation and potentially overseeing the return of some utilities to more public control.
Angela Rayner
Rayner will be pleased to get back the job of housing secretary less than a year after she resigned over underpaid stamp duty on the purchase of a second property.
She had been the subject of speculation that she would be health secretary but sources had suggested she would take some persuading when her main interest is devolution and housing.
In this brief, she will be in charge of two of Burnham’s key priorities: spreading power to local government and embarking on a huge council house building programme.
Lucy Powell
Powell is likely to be pleased with this substantive brief but Burnham has so far stopped short of making her deputy prime minister – despite her job as deputy leader of the party.
Another Manchester area MP, Powell has long been an ally of Burnham and advocated for him to be allowed to run for parliament.
She replaces Bridget Phillipson, her former rival in the race to be deputy leader, who is now minister for women and equalities in a stripped-back cabinet role.
Lisa Nandy
One of the few survivors of the original Starmer cabinet, Nandy stays in the same job. While some in Labour have grumbled about her occasionally low-key approach to the job, she is ideologically closer to Burnham than she was to Starmer, and her Wigan constituency adjoins his.
She now gets to wrestle some more with a suite of challenges including the future of the BBC and the impact of social media. Earlier this month, Nandy announced that her department would stop using X as it “now favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate”.
First entering the Commons in 2010, just before her 30th birthday, Nandy held a series of shadow cabinet posts under Corbyn and Starmer, including a stint as shadow foreign secretary.
A confident and engaging media performer, Nandy stood in the 2020 Labour leadership election, coming third.
Ellie Reeves
A bump up the ladder for the Reeves sister who remains in the cabinet – after nearly a year as solicitor general, she becomes attorney general, taking over from Richard Hermer.
A change in personnel in the post was never in doubt, given Hermer is not only one of Starmer’s most loyal political allies, but also a close personal friend. For Reeves it is reward for her previous service in a series of important but largely backroom roles, such as party chair and deputy national campaigns coordinator.
A lawyer by training, as is usual for the job, Reeves undertook a series of Labour party roles before winning her south London seat of Lewisham West and East Dulwich in 2017.
Anneliese Midgley
Midgley, a former political director for Unite, had been instrumental in helping Burnham with his Makerfield campaign. She was thought to be a contender for party chair but instead Burnham is seeking to harness her talent for organising as chief whip.
Emma Reynolds
Chief secretary to the Treasury
A cabinet survival – sort of, she will attend cabinet – for the former environment secretary who was very close to Starmer, and more associated with his centrist Labour politics than the views of Burnham.
The rationale appears to be that Reynolds can be both an overtly pro-business voice in the Treasury, as well as being an experienced hand in such matters to assist Healey.
After losing her Wolverhampton North East seat in 2019, Reynolds spent five years working for the financial services lobby group TheCityUK. On returning to the Commons in 2024, Starmer immediately put her in the Treasury, where she stayed until becoming environment secretary.
Douglas Alexander
A continued stay in the cabinet for another Commons returnee, who has filled the role since Starmer’s September 2025 reshuffle.
Being Scotland secretary was not new ground for Alexander – it was one of several cabinet roles he held under Blair. After losing his Paisley and Renfrewshire South seat to the SNP in 2015, Alexander was out of parliament until returning at the 2024 election.
Chris Bryant
Northern Ireland secretary
Another cabinet debutant, although Bryant has held a series of other ministerial roles and was in the shadow cabinet in opposition.
The Rhondda MP is known as a safe pair of hands, whether with a ministerial brief or a tricky morning broadcast round, and would be expected to relish the particular complexities and sensitivities of the Northern Ireland job.
An MP since 2001, having studied theology and served briefly as a Church of England priest, Bryant is an expert in Commons procedures, and stood unsuccessfully in 2019 to become Commons speaker.
Stephen Kinnock
Also a first dip of the toe into cabinet waters for the former minister for care in the health department.
The MP for Aberafan Maesteg in south Wales – Aberavon before the constituency boundaries were redrawn – Kinnock has been in the Commons since 2015, after an earlier career spent in part at the European parliament.
He is, of course, the son of the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, while his wife, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, spent four years as Denmark’s prime minister.
Alan Campbell
No change in this sometimes technical but highly important role, with Campbell tasked with piloting Burnham’s legislative agenda through the Commons.
An MP since 1997 who had held various relatively junior roles, Campbell was called to the cabinet in 2025, when Starmer’s mass reshuffle removed from the job and – for a period – kicked her out of the cabinet altogether.
