Andy Burnham unveiled his cabinet on Monday, making sweeping changes and handing top jobs to John Healey, Shabana Mahmood, Louise Haigh and Ed Miliband. The new prime minister conducted a brutal purge of ministers closely allied with his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer - with David Lammy, Darren Jones and Rachel Reeves all leaving government. But how different is Mr Burnham’s cabinet from Sir Keir’s really? Here, The Independent takes a look at the ministers who make up his top team, and how it compares to those of his predecessor. More privately educated cabinet ministers under Burnham One key difference between Mr Burnham’s first cabinet and Sir Keir’s last one is the number of ministers who were privately educated. Just two of Sir Keir's cabinet ministers attended fee-paying schools, Lisa Nandy and Douglas Alexander - compared to a whopping nine in Mr Burnham’s cabinet, with senior cabinet ministers John Healey and Louise Haigh among those who attended private schools. Record number of women appointedAnother difference between the two goverments is the number of women. Mr Burnham has appointed a record number of women to the cabinet, with the number of females outnumbering males for the first time.Of the 23 full members of Mr Burnham’s cabinet, including the prime minister, 12 are women and 11 are men. This is up from 10 women and 13 men in Sir Keir Starmer’s final cabinet.The previous record was 11 women out of 22 full members, set by Sir Keir’s first cabinet in July 2024. Of the 28 ministers eligible to attend Mr Burnham’s cabinet — 23 full members and five others — 50 per cent (14) are women. This surpasses the previous record of 48 per cent of all attendees in Sir Keir’s first cabinet.Louise Haigh is the new chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Yui Mok/PA) (PA Wire)Slight increase in number of people of colour in cabinet Three of the 28 in Mr Burnham’s cabinet are non-white: energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, home secretary Shabana Mahmood and AI minister Kanishka Narayan.This is up from two out of 28 in the previous cabinet – Shabana Mahmood and former justice secretary David Lammy.But it is lower than levels seen earlier in the decade, such as Rishi Sunak’s first Conservative cabinet, which included five non-white ministers, or Liz Truss’ short-lived administration, which began with seven non-white ministers.Left-wing influence Louise Haigh and Angela Rayner have both returned to cabinet under Mr Burnham, having had to resign over a previous fraud conviction and tax issues respectively. Both of them are influential figures on the left of the party and have strong backing from Labour MPs - signalling Mr Burnham’s commitment to returning to "distinctively Labour” values. While Sir Keir Starmer initially had both of them in his cabinet, they arguably hold more influential roles in Mr Burnham’s government. As chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Ms Haigh will be in charge of the engine of governrment. Meanwhile, Ms Rayner - who has returned to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government - will be overseeing two of Mr Burnham’s core missions: the building of new council houses and devolution. Ed Miliband, another figure on the left of the party, has also been given a promotion, being moved from energy to the foreign office where he will oversee Britain’s approach to the US and Europe. People who have been in cabinet before Mr Burnham’s cabinet is marginally more experienced than Sir Keir’s, largely because the new prime minister brought back several ministers who had served in the last government, and also those who had left the last government. Some 19 members of Mr Burnham’s top team have prior cabinet experience, while 15 of those in Sir Keir's final cabinet had the same. Northern MPs New Prime minister Andy Burnham (Chris Furlong/PA) (PA Wire)The new cabinet has a greater proportion of MPs representing seats in northern England than under Sir Keir Starmer. Some 13 of the 27 MPs eligible to attend cabinet have constituencies in this part of the UK, up from 10 out of 25 in the previous cabinet.There has been a notable jump in the number of MPs in cabinet with seats in the North West, up from two – Lisa Nandy (Wigan) and Jonathan Reynolds (Stalybridge and Hyde) – to seven: Andy Burnham (Makerfield), Angela Eagle (Wallasey), Anneliese Midgley (Knowsley), Lucy Powell (Manchester Central) and Angela Rayner (Ashton-under-Lyne), plus Lisa Nandy and Jonathan Reynolds.A further four MPs in the new cabinet represent constituencies in Yorkshire and the Humber – Yvette Cooper (Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley), John Healey (Rawmarsh and Conisbrough), Louise Haigh (Sheffield Heeley) and Ed Miliband (Doncaster North) – while two have seats in the North East: Sir Alan Campbell (Tynemouth) and Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South).