Mahmood Set for Chancellor as Reeves Is Moved
Andy Burnham is reported to be poised to name the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, as his Chancellor, passing over the early favourite Ed Miliband; one source called it “nailed down”. Rachel Reeves, the outgoing Chancellor, is expected to be moved to another post, with Culture or Health said to be under consideration, and Mr Miliband is tipped for a possible switch to the Foreign Office. Mr Burnham’s team have declined to comment, and no appointments will be confirmed until he takes office on Monday.
The Chancellor is the choice that will define a Burnham government, and the reported move to install Mahmood over Miliband is a signal worth reading, if a provisional one. Mahmood, who as Home Secretary drove through a tightening of asylum law, is a figure of the party’s disciplined centre rather than its spending left, and her name at the Treasury would suggest continuity with Reeves’s fiscal caution more than a break towards the looser, more devolutionary approach Burnham’s allies have trailed. Yet Burnham has also declined to rule out a wealth tax and hinted at asking for “a little more”, so a disciplined Chancellor may still preside over tax rises. Moving Reeves rather than sacking her is a way to retain a heavyweight without the Treasury she defined. All of it remains reported speculation until Burnham speaks from No 10. Watch the first confirmed appointments after Monday, how the markets read a Mahmood Treasury, and whether the party’s left accepts being passed over.