Burnham rewards Starmer's sharpest critics with top government jobs

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LONDON — Andy Burnham has spent the first 48 hours of his premiership picking a new top team. Some of the biggest winners? Sharp critics of the man he ousted.

The former Greater Manchester mayor has brutally culled key allies of his predecessor Keir Starmer — just days after he pledged to end a culture of factionalism in the governing Labour Party.

Starmer’s power as prime minister eroded throughout his time in office — and was chipped away at by colleagues who quit his government or openly called on him to go.

POLITICO rounds up the politicians who publicly challenged Starmer’s authority and have now been rewarded.

Anas Sarwar

As Scottish Labour leader, Sarwar was the first top Labour figure to call on Starmer to quit. At a hastily arranged press conference back in February, Sarwar said scandals involving the prime minister were now becoming a “distraction” from Labour’s mission.

He told reporters there had been “too many mistakes” — his comments followed the furor over sacked U.S. Ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson — and warned that the “leadership in Downing Street has to change.”

This was a moment of real peril for Starmer and cabinet ministers were forced to post messages of support for the then prime minister across social media in a bid to shore him up.

But six months and a whole new administration later, Sarwar’s audaciousness has paid off — he is set to take up a lifetime seat in the House of Lords and become a trade minister in the new Burnham government.

Ed Miliband

Ed Miliband was beaming when he walked up Downing Street on Monday. While missing out on the coveted chancellorship, he was about to be appointed foreign secretary — a nice promotion from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Perhaps he felt like he had earned it. He did, after all, help clear the way for the Burnham premiership when he became one of the first members of Starmer’s cabinet to tell him to consider his position.

Ahead of a disastrous set of local election results in May, Miliband privately suggested that Starmer set out a timetable for his departure.

He now gets to represent Britain on the world stage as its top diplomat.

Ed Miliband is pictured in Downing Street, London on July 20, 2026. | Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images

John Healey

The U.K.’s new chancellor — the government’s top finance minister — spent just a month out of office after resigning as Starmer’s defense secretary.

John Healey quit in June after a heated battle over military spending. This was seen as one of the final acts of damage to the Starmer-led government.

In a seething resignation letter, Healey wrote that the prime minister had been “unable” and the Treasury “unwilling” to “commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country.”

Now he controls the coffers — and insists he’s “burning with a passion” for the Treasury.

Wes Streeting

Wes Streeting had long been seen as coveting the top job. So when he quit as health secretary in May, criticizing the government’s “drift” and lack of “vision,” many expected a rapid bid to replace the prime minister himself.

Streeting’s allies claimed he had the backing of 81 Labour MPs necessary to launch a challenge to Starmer — but a few weeks later he announced he would back Burnham to become Labour leader and prime minister.

There were questions then over what deal had been done to secure Streeting’s support. He has now been appointed defense secretary, a promotion from his old gig and a chance, like Miliband, to project globally.

Louise Haigh

A key architect of Burnham’s ascension, Louise Haigh had somewhat of an ax to grind against Starmer — and she wielded it masterfully.

Haigh was briefly transport secretary under the former prime minister, but resigned following revelations that she had pleaded guilty to a fraud offense more than a decade ago. Allies said at the time that Starmer was aware of these details before her appointment.

The Sheffield Heeley MP then helped orchestrate a powerful backbench rebellion over welfare reforms — forcing the government into an embarrassing U-turn.

Haigh said this month that she had been planning for a Burnham premiership for a year.

The hard work has paid off, as she will now run the Cabinet Office as the new prime minister’s right-hand woman — and gets the grand title of first secretary of state to boot.