Shabana Mahmood is no stranger to tough, career-ending jobs. She’s currently the Home Secretary, both one of the great offices of state and also one of the great graveyards of political ambitions.
The other graveyard is the Treasury, where she may well move in the next week or so once Andy Burnham has the keys to Downing Street. Rachel Reeves entered the Treasury in 2024 with a glittering political reputation, and we all know how long that lasted.
Mahmood is being mooted as Burnham’s chancellor after a rearguard action against Ed Miliband, who had been another favourite candidate. Miliband would not be entering the Treasury with a glittering reputation: though he is arguably one of the most effective ministers of the Starmer years, he has the potential to unsettle the markets, and is not favoured by Labour’s union backers due to the impact of his net-zero policies.
Mahmood, on the other hand, has thus far managed to survive the political equivalent of running with a live hand grenade, which is what running the Home Office always feels like. When she takes questions in the Commons, she commands respect from her own benches and those opposite for her immigration policies and her clear-headed approach to some of the most difficult questions Labour has to answer. Why not move her into the Treasury?
