Andy Burnham’s brutal reshuffle achieved what Sir Keir Starmer never could: creating a faction of Starmerites. And they’re already showing their teeth.
In the pub in Kentish Town by Monday mid-afternoon, Starmer supped from a pint, toasting his own political wake. In Downing Street, his successor kept anxious allies waiting as he appointed his Cabinet while juggling the other commitments of a first-day prime minister. Talk to the US President as closest ally: tick; appoint Chancellor: tick; take call from Archbishop of Canterbury: tick. No wonder the reshuffle dragged on until the small hours.
When the fog cleared, the undoubted winner was the North West. Greater Manchester is heavily represented with five MPs in the new Cabinet, compared to just two for London. In fact, there are now more members of the Cabinet with a tattoo of a Manchester worker bee – Burnham, Angela Rayner and Jonathan Reynolds – than there are Old Etonians. Just one who wore a tailcoat to school: Kanishka Narayan was appointed AI minister.
Meanwhile, there was Labour grumbling that although Burnham has appointed a record number of women to the Cabinet, outnumbering men for the first time at 12-11, he only gave one, Shabana Mahmood, a position in one of the Great Offices of State as Home Secretary. Labour sources also pointed out that inside No 10, there are scant women in senior positions.
