Wes Streeting is being talked up to become Andy Burnham’s chancellor – as some MPs campaign to stop Ed Miliband from landing the job.
The jockeying comes after Burnham won the Makerfield by-election on Friday with 54.8 per cent of the vote, clearing his path to a widely anticipated challenge for the Labour leadership.
With Sir Keir Starmer weakened by a months-long crisis over the party’s direction and electoral fortunes, attention at Westminster has turned to who would run the Treasury – and replace Rachel Reeves as chancellor – in a possible Burnham government.
Multiple MPs have told The i Paper they believe Streeting is eyeing up the role, despite his public insistence that he intends to stand in any forthcoming leadership contest. Streeting quit his role as health secretary in Starmer’s Cabinet last month, having signalled he was prepared to mount his own bid to become prime minister.
One Burnham ally went further, suggesting that Streeting had pitched directly for the chancellorship when the two men met in Makerfield on 8 June – a claim denied by a source close to Streeting.
