Andy Burnham’s first Labour cabinet: who’s in and who’s out?

Rachel Reeves

Reeves had always wanted the job of chancellor and was proud to be the UK’s first female holder of the office. She had worked hard to instil ironclad fiscal discipline on Labour, sticking broadly to her self-imposed fiscal rules and enforcing spending curbs across departments.

However, some in Labour blamed early missteps from her Treasury for Starmer’s downfall, starting with the cut to the winter fuel payment, but also the rise in national insurance for employers that her critics in business claim stymied the jobs market and growth.

Reeves can, however, claim a record of having started to turn the economy around. She made a valiant effort to stay in her job but ultimately was judged too close to the Starmer project to stay in the Treasury. She is believed to have turned down another senior position.

A former child chess champion and Oxford economics graduate, Reeves had also faced criticisms from some papers for having exaggerated her credentials as an economist on her LinkedIn page, allowed some plagiarism to creep into a book she wrote on female economists and having inadvertently failed to pay for a landlord’s licence.

In her departing statement, she said: “It has been the privilege of my life to serve as the chancellor of the exchequer. The economy today is stronger, fairer and more resilient because of the choices we have taken as a Labour government over the past two years. Stability restored, investment delivered and reform to our economy under way … I’m proud to say that they have. And to every young woman and girl let my time in office show there should be no ceilings on your ambitions, your hopes or your dreams.”

David Lammy

Lammy has been a longstanding frontbencher after serving as a minister in the last New Labour governments.

A former lawyer, he served as foreign secretary for Keir Starmer and then won a promotion to deputy prime minister and justice secretary when Angela Rayner stood down. He has been at the former prime minister’s side for many of his toughest moments.

Such is his experience and standing that there was some speculation he might stay on in a different ministerial role. In a post on X announcing his departure, Lammy made it plain he had been happy to stay on but was not wanted.

He wrote: “I would have been proud to continue serving in cabinet. But a new prime minister is entitled to build his own team, and I wish Andy Burnham and the new cabinet every success.”

Darren Jones

From the centre of No ۱۰ operations to nothing. As Jones put it in a bluntly worded social media post: “Andy Burnham has called to tell me I won’t be a part of his new cabinet. I wish him and his team every success.”

An MP since ۲۰۱۷, Jones’s fairly rapid rise to the top table began with well-reviewed performances as chair of the business and trade committee. It began with the tricky if powerful role of Reeves’ number two as chief secretary to the Treasury.

There he was so central to spending negotiations, that when Starmer undertook one of his several organisational revamps, as part of the September ۲۰۲۵ reshuffle, Jones took on the new and somewhat artificial role of chief secretary to the prime minister, tasked with leading change from No ۱۰.

Vague hints that Jones might contest for the Labour leadership came to nothing, and while – as his tweet indicated – he would have been happy to do another role, this was also not on the cards.

Steve Reed

Reed was one of most loyal cabinet ministers to the Starmer administration, although he had made a play to keep his job in recent weeks by highlighting his achievements.

An old ally of Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s former chief of staff, Reed was a veteran of south London local government before entering parliament in ۲۰۱۲. He served as environment secretary before his current job, and will now return to the backbenches.

His letter to Burnham after his departure from government was somewhat spiky, warning him not to disadvantage London and also sending his hopes that those who were not loyal to Starmer will be loyal to the new prime minister.

Peter Kyle

Kyle took on the job of business secretary last year in the emergency reshuffled prompted by the departure of Angela Rayner over her council tax affairs. It meant he found himself on flights to the US and China at a moment’s notice at a critical time for negotiations over trade and tech companies. He previously served as science secretary – a role that is now likely to be folded into the business department.

Kyle entered parliament in ۲۰۱۵ and has been open about his struggles to get there. He had difficulties at school due to dyslexia and left, in his own words, “without any usable” qualifications. He made it to university in his ۲۰s after several failed attempts.

An ally of both Wes Streeting and Starmer, Kyle appears to be departing from cabinet largely to make way for closer supporters of Burnham although he has also been criticised for a perception that he has been too open towards tech companies.

Richard Hermer

Hermer was probably Starmer’s closest friend in politics. A fellow human rights lawyer, he was made a peer so that he could join the prime minister’s first cabinet.

However, he quickly became a bogeyman for the rightwing press, which disliked his role in signing over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and generally espousing views on the liberal left. His past legal work, including his representation of Gerry Adams and advice to Caribbean countries seeking reparations, has been raked over by Tories who have demanded that he publicly recuse himself from some areas.

The criticism was not confined to the right, with Maurice Glasman, the Blue Labour founder and associate of the US vice-president, JD Vance, called Hermer “an arrogant, progressive fool who thinks that law is a replacement for politics”.

Starmer steadfastly stuck by him though, and Hermer has been an invaluable source of counsel and friendship through his final months as premier. He was also a bastion of progressive thought in a cabinet that many in the Labour party felt had veered too far away from core party values.

Liz Kendall

Also to be filed under: no surprise here. Kendall has always been on the right of Labour and ideologically much closer to Starmer than to the new PM.

An ever-present figure on Starmer’s frontbench, the Leicester West MP started as work and pensions secretary, the job she had shadowed in opposition, before moving to the science brief in the wholesale cabinet reshuffle of September last year.

An MP from ۲۰۱۰, Kendall supported David Miliband in the Labour leadership election of that year. Five years later she stood herself, coming last of the four candidates when Jeremy Corbyn became leader.

In a tweeted letter, Kendall thanked Starmer and other cabinet colleagues, saying she was ready to support Burnham “in any way I can”.

Jo Stevens

Also not expected to stay on, the Cardiff East MP has been a fixture in the Wales office, filling the brief in opposition and then government since ۲۰۲۱, having previously been Starmer’s shadow culture secretary.

A backer of Starmer when he stood to be Labour leader, Stevens had served as shadow Wales secretary under Corbyn, but resigned in opposition to Corbyn’s decision to back formal moves for the UK to leave the EU.

Hilary Benn

Some had speculated that Benn could be among ministers to stay in their job and provide continuity, given that he is not overtly partisan and was largely seen as doing a quietly good job in a sensitive brief.

But Benn tweeted that he has gone. It is a return to the backbenches for a Labour grandee, in parliament for more than ۲۵ years, who held a series of ministerial jobs under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.