Mahmood Set for Chancellor as the Cabinet Takes Shape
Reports say Andy Burnham is set to name the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, as his Chancellor, passing over the early favourite Ed Miliband, who is now tipped for the Foreign Office. Mahmood is said to have beaten Mr Miliband, Yvette Cooper and Wes Streeting to the Treasury; Rachel Reeves is expected to be replaced. Mr Miliband’s candidacy for the Treasury had reportedly unsettled business over his stance on net zero and North Sea licensing. Burnham’s team stress no appointments are confirmed until he takes office.
The Chancellor is the choice that will define a Burnham government, and the reported move to install Mahmood over Miliband is being read as a signal of continuity with Rachel Reeves’s fiscal caution rather than a break towards the looser, more devolutionary approach Burnham’s allies have trailed — a reading that has reportedly steadied the markets and firmed the pound. Mahmood, who as Home Secretary drove through a tightening of asylum law, is a figure of the party’s disciplined centre. Yet Burnham has declined to rule out a wealth tax, so even a cautious Chancellor may preside over tax rises. Sending Miliband to the Foreign Office rather than the Treasury would keep a heavyweight on side without handing him the economy, at the cost of angering a left that wanted him there. All of it remains reported speculation until Burnham speaks from No 10. Watch the first confirmed appointments after Monday, and how the party’s left responds to the shape of the team.