Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is now the frontrunner to be Andy Burnham’s chancellor, with a decision expected once he formally takes office as Prime Minister next week.
No Cabinet appointments have been confirmed, and Burnham’s team have declined to comment beyond calling the reports “speculation.”
But a senior Labour source told The i Paper that Mahmood had previously been saying she wanted to stay at the Home Office, and is now saying she is “prepared to move wherever helpful” — heavily hinting at a shift to the Treasury.
Shorts
Mahmood has never held an economic brief in government. Her only Treasury experience was as shadow financial secretary a decade ago, under Ed Miliband, which makes her approach hard to predict.
